


Jim's Unimaginable Way or Spock's Five Familiar Women for to Recover the Universe

by julrajulianna



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series, The Orville (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Artificial Intelligence, F/M, Female James T. Kirk, James T. Kirk/Spock in Love, Space Opera, Tragedy/Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26717407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julrajulianna/pseuds/julrajulianna
Summary: Michael Burnham bursts into the measured and calm life of Jim (the girl) in the guise of the Red Angel. In the fight against AI, Michael changed the world. Now the task is to return everything to its place. Return the Universe where Spock can feel, Jim is the male captain, and defeat the Regulator. Agreeing to lead a crazy adventure, Jim Kirk (girl) could not imagine where and how it would lead. Even more surprised was the original Jim Kirk (male, Captain of the Enterprise).
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Невообразимый путь Джим или Пять женщин Спока для возвращения вселенной](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/709102) by julra. 



Present time ...

the Enterprise ship;

ensign Jim Kirk's Diary.

"Michael! It's been five days since I was found on the planet Neo in a cave frozen in a cryocapsule. I've been on the Enterprise in the medical Department ever since. I was not allowed out of the infirmary, and there was no way to send you a message. I learned something important - almost all the pawns have taken their places, there are only a few moves left to make. I expected to be discovered much sooner, and we would have time to prepare. But, unfortunately, more than a year has passed, not just a few days. You should be here in five days. The point of "no return" to it will come. We will strike. Instead of several years, Spock had only five days to change. But I have a plan. Jim recorded a voice message on computer, entered the access codes, and sent an encrypted message to the long - distance station. The girl, having erased all traces of hacking and computer use, calmly left the captain's office.

"Michael, I hope you get a message soon,"Jim thought as she walked through the corridors of the enterprise to Spock's cabin.

Five years ago, she was contacted by a girl named Michael in the guise of a red angel. Jim almost died that day. Michael moved her to another part of the station, saving her from a radioactive storm. Since then, life has changed dramatically ...

***

Past…

Station Gum ...

Five years ago…

"Jim, there's no turning back," Michael urged desperately. “You are the only variable that can help me. If you do not agree, events will repeat again and in five years, this world will be swallowed up by the Regulator and will destroy all living things".

“And you know that because you travel in time,” Jim chuckled incredulously.

She viewed Michael as a hallucination from radiation, or a coma. She felt sick and dizzy. The image of a girl in a suit constantly flickered before my eyes. They were in some kind of dark space. Jim realized that she was really in the medical ward. A couple of times she regained consciousness, and again fell into oblivion, getting here.

"Yes, I have already repeated this to you ten times ... But you still don’t believe, if you want, I will repeat it a hundred times. I need you, Jim!" shouted Michael.

The girl dressed as a red angel stared at Jim, pondering the conversation.

“Okay, I'm telling you for the eleventh time,” she said with restraint. "I am from another time space and the course of the universe. In my world, I also tried to save everyone from the Regulator - artificial intelligence. I won the battle, but not the war, only delayed time. I jumped into the future nine hundred years, and found that the Regulator had won the war. Humanity and all life in the universe perished. The only way to stop it was to destroy it even before it was born. I moved into the past and prevented the creation of this program, not expecting that the Universe itself would change".

"Why did you choose me? I'm just a medical student practicing at this station. This is nonsense!" Jim shook her head, trying to wake up. "Why did I make you up?"

“You couldn't make me up, since you’re just a medical student,” Michael retorted.

"Apparently, it's still not simple, since the image from my imagination makes fun of me!" Jim snapped.

"You are the only person in this universe who can not only see me, but also understand. I am out of time and space because of the costume. In your Universe, I am manifested only twenty percent. I don't exist here. My parents never got along in this changed world. If not for the suit, I would have already dissolved into the space of nothingness".

"Okay, Subconscious," Jim turned to Mike, throwing a displeased glance at her, "since I can't wake up and I'm stuck with you, tell me in more detail who the Regulator is. I will at least be on the subject of playing my mind".

"Then let's start with the pre-story. My full name is Michael Burnham, I was an officer on a spaceship".

"Can't it be shorter?" Jim whined mock, anticipating that the story could drag on.

Michael gave her an unkind look, from which she wanted to hide somewhere.

"I was joking, go on," the girl squeezed out a smile, defusing the situation.

Jim considered herself kind, decent, caring, and empathetic. But when a threat approached, it seemed to change, as if a damaged protective mechanism was triggered: something inside was striving to provoke others.

"In one of the timelines, the spaceship "Discovery" collided with an unknown life form, in the form of a huge Sphere, and made contact," Michael continued as if nothing had happened. "This Sphere was finishing its life cycle. She wanted to pass on the knowledge she had accumulated over the past hundred thousand years. It contained a lot of information about the artificial intelligences of the Galaxies. The entire database was downloaded to the ship's computer. For a research vessel, it was an invaluable gift. But everything turned out differently. There was the main artificial threat assessment system - the Regulator. It was created by the Federation in section 31. All admirals listened to the System. She helped and calculated a lot. He had his own thoughts and opinions. The system was gaining consciousness. At some point, information from Discovery's main computer became available to the Controller. And he made a giant leap in self-development. Artificial intelligence that surpassed everything. The system decided that the main threat to life and existence in space is living beings. She decided to destroy everything, and then create her own order in the world. She did it. Almost everything was destroyed. In one thing, the System miscalculated - a person with the ability to move in time and space got from the past to the future. This man was able to go back in time and warn my brother of the danger. But the developed Regulator came for him through the portal. We changed the course of history by fighting AI, preventing it from getting data from the Sphere in our computers for development. We tried to destroy this data. But the computer codes from the Sphere protected them from any damage. We have lost several battles, the Controller managed to download some of the information. Time travel technologies became available to us. We thought we won the war by sending the Discovery ship through an energy portal to the future so the AI couldn't get to them.But when I myself was in future I realized that we had lost. With the help of a suit, I went back in time and tried to rectify the situation. Whatever I did, nothing changed. And then it was decided to destroy the AI in the bud. I did it, but because of this, the world changed. And the Regulator from my universe still survived. He managed to hide in the portal and was not erased by the time wave. In this world, it was never created, but for the existence of AI it was not necessary. He won again in the future and in this world. I again tried to contact my brother in order to prevent the death of all living things, but my brother in this universe cannot perceive me".

"Making you up is one thing, but this whole alignment of events ... " Jim thought.

"Jim, I would like to be an illusion for you, and not to involve you in what I'm mired in. But I have no other choice. In this Universe, only together with you, by uniting, we can resist AI".

" Why can't your brother hear you, but I can?" Jim plunged into history more and more, analyzing Michael's words. She had already realized that the Red Angel was not a hallucination.

“Spock is my named brother from a foster family, grew up without me, and was so mired in the complexities of two different manifestations in his brain - Vulcan from his father and human from his mother that dyslexia consumed him. The only way to develop a child was a Vulcan ritual - Kolinar. He cleared Spock of all emotions. This ritual was previously only performed by adult Vulcans who could not cope with emotions. Spock became the first child. In my universe, I helped my brother cope with the difficulties by trying on the human and Vulcan parts, Kolinar was not even mentioned. I wasn't here, and Spock was turned into an emotionless creature. My brother was able to communicate with the Red Angel because of the peculiarities of his versatile psyche. This Spock has only a Vulcan psyche, and even then - limited. In this universe, five years from now, Spock will have to fight the AI when the day of the point of no return comes and he will lose without me. From this moment, the cleaning of the world from living beings will begin. I need to get into my brother's head and awaken in him everything he knew in another universe. Only Spock can destroy the AI, but he doesn't even remember who it is.

“So you’re a Vulcan?” Jim asked curiously, provoking Michael again.

"Is this the only thing that you remember and understand?" Michael threw up her hands.

“This is the only thing that interested me,” Jim shrugged, not yet ready to surrender to the will of the Red Angel. " I still don't understand why me?"

"My parents were human. They were born on Earth. But then they were gone, and I was sent to a foster family on Vulcan. I had to combine two parts in myself - human from nature and create Vulcan in order to survive in that society. So partly, consciously, I am a Vulcan. As for you, you are the only one who can not only see, but also perceive me. I scanned the significant people in Spock's life to bring him back to emotion, and then enter consciousness when I discovered that his best friend was not in this universe. Instead, the same couple had a daughter, who for some reason was named Jim, by a man's name.

“Amazing…” Jim chuckled, thinking of the name Michael. She had to strain very hard not to say anything about this.

"I followed your fate. You died at this station during a radioactive eruption from the sun. My intervention saved your life. You have to help me get Spock back. Only in this way can we return the original world".

“So I was a man. And you want to return the Universe in which I will also be a man?" Jim shook her head, as if trying to work out all the information in his head.  
"What is your selective ability to choose from all the important things ..."

"And if I do not want to become a man!" Interrupted Jim. “If you tested me so well, you should have known that I have a husband, I have a life here!"

"This life was supposed to end today!" reminded Michael.

" And what will happen if I do not follow you?" the girl grimaced, anticipating the answer not in her favor.

“Perhaps you will live five more years. I have not yet seen your new future after my intervention today. But in any case, it is limited to these years, like all mankind".

"For the tenth time I ask, why exactly can I perceive you?"

"I think we will find the answer together ..."

"You don't know," Jim chuckled. Michael said nothing. There was no point in arguing anymore. Kirk sighed heavily, as if gathering strength and determination. "How am I supposed to help you get your brother back?"

“He works for Starfleet. You have to go there to study. You will have access to it only in this way.

"Starfleet! Why not? Easy peasy! Are you kidding?"

Jim was furious. The Red Angel wants some kind of ghostly salvation of the world, because of which she must change her whole life. And an incredible effort, too, to join Starfleet. And because of this, she will receive on top from her mother and stepfather for sticking there.

“Why can't I come to Spock now and say everything that you just told me?"  
“He won't believe you. This Vulcan is extremely logical and does not believe in time travel and prediction. If you are next to him on the same ship, you can gradually reach him. We have five years".

***

Present time ...

Ship Enterprise. Spock's cabin ...

"Commander Spock, may I come in?" Jim knocked on the door and opened it.

"You are already logged in. Ensign Kirk, what did you want?" He asked coldly, putting down the pad.

Spock sat at the table, reviewing the reports.

“I wanted to talk about the Red Angel,” the girl hesitated near the door.

“Then I should call Captain Pike,” the Vulcan rose from his chair.

"Wait. It's personal ... ” the Ensign rattled, taking steps forward.

“Ensign Kirk, there can be no personal conversation for sure. Less than was two years ago, the court forbade you to approach me closer than a thousand kilometers. Unfortunately, this situation does not allow you to fulfill obligations and remove you from the ship. By being on the same ship with me, you are already breaking the law, ” Spock said emotionlessly.

Jim remembered him at the academy: unapproachable, cold, not a drop of emotion on his face. He seemed more of a robot than a living being. And now he remained the same. But the girl knew what points to put pressure on in order to get emotions out of him. It was not her first. Michael was right that she would be able to awaken human feelings in a semi-Vulcan, but she certainly could not imagine what these feelings would be and how they were achieved.

"You're not serious?" Kirk couldn't believe. " After you learned about what was happening from me personally ?!"

"You are a valuable source of information. That is why you are here. As soon as you entered, I turned on the camera.” Spock pointed to a statuette on the table with a tracking device in its eye.

"You are afraid of me? " the girl grinned, going into a dense one to the table. Spock remained on the other side.

“I have no feeling of fear, or even dislike, although any person would have them in a similar situation,” he said coldly.

"At the academy, I just outplayed your game in the Kobayashi Maru test, and you decided to remove me ..."  
It was hard and uncomfortable for Jim to remember the events of two years ago. But there was no choice now.

"You was cheating - you were removed. But it wasn't enough for you and you almost burned us alive. If Cadet Uhura hadn't arrived, we wouldn't be standing here right now."

Jim thought she heard a touch of undisguised emotion in Spock's voice. In her thoughts, she congratulated herself and continued the impact.

“I apologized a hundred times then,” she clapped her eyelashes.

"It does not matter. Our interactions with you are over".

“If you remember, I told you about the Red Angel that evening. And if you had agreed to listen to me, you would have been prepared for what is happening now!

“You were talking in drunken delirium,” the Vulcan snapped openly, irritated.

"I drank then one glass of wine for courage to talk to you. Your sister has entrusted me with an exorbitant task".

"Yes, apparently for this you took a tranquilizer with you and managed to inject it into me!" the conversation turned to raised tones on both sides.

"You didn't want to listen! And if you believed then, then the Red Angel would not be a problem for you now, but was would salvation and a solution to our problems".

"You are impulsive, impractical, feelings capture you, and you cannot control them ... Do you think if you were a Red Angel, you would entrust yourself with such a mission?" Spock pressed, forgetting his restraint.

"To your and my regret, only I can understand the Red Angel. And that's what I was trying to demonstrate that evening. I didn't expect your candles on the table to nearly burn us. It was me needed to protect the court from your candles.Э

“My candles would have burned out normally if you hadn't tried to seduce me".

"So, but I did not subscribe to this!" the girl grimaced. “I promised your sister that I would help you hear her — that's all. Michael left a message in my head for you. That evening, if you were to complete the merging of consciousness, you would see the truth. But instead, you managed to throw me right onto the candles. It was not my fault that a large glass of alcohol was thrown on me at the bar where I was gathering my courage".

“It's good that I have Uhuru's testimony, otherwise the judge could still think about your innocence and take pity on you".

"You arranged everything in court, as if I were a student obsessed with you, deliberately hacked your test, and then, in desperation, tried to seduce by immobilizing a muscle relaxant with a tranquilizer. Here, I am the victim of your false accusations".

Jim remembered this picture very vividly, no matter how hard she tried to forget it.

***

Two years ago…

Starfleet Academy ...

Kirk was expelled from Starfleet Academy for bypassing Spock's Kobayashi Maru test for cadets. No one has ever passed it. All attempts of students ended in failure. Jim had to break the rules and crack the code to win that simulation of the enemy attack. She wanted to impress Spock, and finally get to know him in person. She waited two years of training in Starfleet for Spock to return from a mission on the Enterprise. Michael showed up every few months giving her orders and teaching her the finer points of the Vulcan conjunction mind for future use. Jim studied hard, giving herself completely to the mission. She broke up with her husband, although they still have not had time to divorce. She had none of her friends now, apart from Dr. McCoy.

And now everything was going to hell. She let Michael down, she let the whole world down. Jim wrote down the message and sent it to Michael, hoping that somewhere in time she would hear it and move to her now. Hours passed, but this did not happen. She was given only a day to collect things, tomorrow morning she will have to leave the territory. Panic gripped her. Michael said that in another world, Jim was a man - the captain of the Enterprise, and Spock was the first mate. Their team has saved many lives and resolved thousands of conflicts. Is it really different because she was born in this changed world as a woman? She has more phobias, less confidence ... Anyway, it was only because of Michael that she entered Starfleet. Jim tried to come up with a male version of her in her place. She decided to talk to Spock and tell him everything. Michael had previously forbidden her to do this, said that he would not believe. But now there were other circumstances. He may not even want to listen to her, for this the girl took with her a potent tranquilizer with a muscle relaxant.

She sneaked into the Vulcan's house that evening and hid in a closet. She didn't have to wait long. But Spock didn't come alone, Uhura was with him. Jim hadn't counted on her. She watched for half an hour as they discussed Kobayashi Maru's test and Jim's intervention. Uhura was clearly not going to leave. Jim certainly didn't want to witness anything hotter.

Michael said that the Kolinar ritual removes all emotions and even the desire to reproduce. But in adults, how he influenced little Spock, remained completely unknown. How could he remove those emotions that had not yet originated? Emotions for women ... Rumors circulated that Spock and Uhuru were having an affair. But there was no confirmation of this. Then what was she doing here at such a time? Perhaps women can generate emotions in a Vulcan?

Spock received a call and went to another room. Jim found the scarf in the closet and wrapped it around her face to remain unrecognizable, and attacked Uhura, knocking her out on the spot, then dragged her to the toilet and locked it there. Jim hurried to Spock's room, he was just saying goodbye to his interlocutor. Jim, taking advantage of the confusion, injected the Vulcan with a large dose of a mixture of drugs and chemicals.It took her a few more seconds for the remedy to work. Jim was had to run from Spock until he settled down by the chair.

Spock was sitting on the floor, leaning against a chair - he could not move. Jim sat down next to him and placed her fingers on the psycho-points on the Vulcan's face. She did everything as Michael taught her. This was her last chance, she thought at that moment. Spock resisted, he would not let her get close to his consciousness. She begged him. I talked about the Red Angel, but it was useless. Jim forgot about the increased metabolism of the Vulcans, she spent more time than planned. Spock was able to regain control and pushed her away from him in an instant. She bumped into candles, and immediately burst into flames due to clothing soaked in alcohol. Jim threw off herself jacket, and she, falling on the sofa, also ignited it. The fire spread very quickly. At that moment Uhura came running in and helped Spock to his feet - he was still weakened. Breathing smoke, they left the house. Firefighters had to extinguish the entire room. Spock's house was destroyed.

***

The present…

Ship Enterprise ...

Spock's room ...

“I'm really sorry,” Jim said sincerely.

“I don’t know what you want. Just as I don’t know what the Red Angel wants and wants. Stay away from me. I am sure it will not work to extinguish the Enterprise, unlike my house".

"Your ship, just like another ship in the original world, collided with the Sphere, the knowledge of which is very extensive. In that world, the Sphere unloaded them to Discovery, in this world to the Enterprise. In that world, the AI Controller chased them, and will continue in this one. He, like Michael, was able to transfer and escape from the previous universe. The threat is precisely the AI Controller, he is trying to destroy the world".

“The only reason I’m still talking with you is your imprisonment in a cryo capsule connected to an AI interference system. Whose side are you on? You know a lot about everything. But you are dangerous, not only by your knowledge and connections, but also by yourself. I learned the lesson that with you it is impossible to calculate the moves. Be so kind as to walk out the door carefully. My finger is already on the security call button".

Jim silently turned around and left.

***  
Five years ago…

Gam Station…

A week after Michael's first appearance in life Jim…

Jim was discharged. She's almost completely cured. Her practice at the gam station was Cut short and allowed to take final exams earlier. The long-awaited end of the research doctor training was about to be completed. She was given a month to recover her health.

Jim wanted to visit her husband on the Orville spacecraft before the exams started, but all plans were dashed that night.

The girl decided that the Red angel and saving the world was just her delirium, a consequence of radiation. Since she'd woken up in a hospital bed a week ago, there hadn't been any reminders of Michael. Jim managed to sigh calmly.

"Jim," the girl heard the voice of Michael.

"It can't be!" panic seized her.

Jim felt numb. The girl grabbed the nearest wall. Her legs gave way and she fell to the floor. Everything swam before my eyes, and my mind moved to another place.

"Jim, listen to my voice. Focus on him. I'm here with you".

"Michael! How? Where?"

"In the space of our combined minds. You can only understand me when I combine our minds".

"You know, I don't even know who I want you to be… A consequence of radiation, a tumor that presses on the brain, causing hallucinations…"

"I'm real," Michael interrupted.

"You've been gone a week! I was hoping" Jim turned her head from side to side.

"A week for you, but not for me. Unfortunately, in this costume, I can't accurately calculate my moving. It's damaged. I couldn't finish talking to you last time. Your brain was exposed to radiation. You needed a break. From that time, I was transported immediately to the nearest one I could get to. Now".

"I'm going to my husband's place on Orville tomorrow. Or won't you even let him say goodbye?"

"There's an open day at Starfleet Academy tomorrow. You should be there. Find this man, " Michael pointed to the image of a man. "This is captain Christopher pike. They'll kill him tomorrow. You have to stop it. This is your chance to enter the Academy.

"How am I supposed to do that?" I'm not trained to protect people.

"He will be shot with a poison dart. You'll find a syringe on your Desk in the room, put it in his vein. It's an antidote. Next to the syringe will be another bottle for three separate doses. For you and Spock. Who gets the last one, choose who you want to protect".

"And how do I explain to Pike and everyone else that I know all this?" Jim asked skeptically.

"Tell them you overheard people plotting murder." You didn't have any proof, so you didn't tell anyone. But since you're a medic, you had a chance to get the antidote. I'll tell you about the location of the conspirators ' headquarters. You give it to Pike and they'll believe you".  
Jim felt as if the walls were closing around her. If she opened her eyes now and didn't find the syringe and vial, she would go to a psychiatrist tomorrow; if they will be were there, she go to the Academy, where she would save a person's life.

"I don't know how often I can appear in your mind. You have to remember these codes. They will help me hack into Federation computers and send me encrypted messages to a remote station. My suit is tied to it. I always go back there, only nine hundred years in advance. The station will be abandoned, but the data will remain there. Encrypted messages from you can only be read by me.

Jim remained silent, hoping that the syringe and vial were gone.

***

Present…

The Enterprise Ship. Bridge…

"Let me go to the bridge, — Jim said, pausing at the Elevator door.

"You may pass, Jim kirk," captain pike said. "We've contacted the Orvill ship. They were more than surprised that we found you alive. The ship is twenty hours away from us. On Board, as you expected, there were data on the planet Neo, which you found with the team. This information is classified. They will hand it over to us on arrival".

"I'm glad to hear it, Captain," Jim said, walking over to chair captain and looking around the bridge.

At the Academy, she had imagined serving aboard the Enterprise. But fate had thrown her away, but now it had brought the ship to her.

"You know, Jim, I knew your father. He was a very good man and a great captain. He saved a lot of people. I'm sorry he's gone. Five years ago, when you saved my life by injecting me with an antidote, I was willing to bet everything on you and take you back to the Enterprise after school. How much can I trust you?"

"We're on the same side," Jim said evasively.

"The day you were expelled from the Academy because of the test, I filed a petition for you to be reinstated. But after the events of the night, my application was not even considered".

"I didn't know," said Jim, genuinely surprised. "Thank You".

The girl looked down. All the people on the bridge were busy with their work. But their conversation, Jim knew, was heard by everyone. And everyone knew exactly what the night's events were about. Jim kirk and Spock were the number one gossip topic in the Starfleet Federation.

"I should have been more reserved, and I would have spent these years here, and the Red angel would have been closer to Spock. But because of me, everything turned out... " said Jim very quietly.

"Much more interesting," said the captain, with a mysterious smile.

"Thank you," Jim repeated.

She really missed a lot. For almost two years, she was would be able to work here, in this team. Be useful not only for the world, but also for yourself. She was interested in the Enterprise. Instead, she took a detour and went straight into the enemy's lair. But apparently, fortune did not completely turn away from her, since the enemy's lair was their chance to win and much more. Our ways are mysterious...

"What should I tell my husband?"

"It doesn't matter. If you want him to survive, too, you must help save the world".

"The greatest plan save world" Jim muttered.

"This plan was conceived by Jim kirk, the captain of the Enterprise. So you sort out your plan. I met you the same way when I came back to my brother from the future. He also worked aboard the Enterprise. The ship's captain was Jim kirk. He became a prominent figure in the history of the Federation.

"Great, one less outstanding person now!" Jim chuckled.

It was hard for Jim to understand and accept. She is far from a brave captain, and now she is required to be something that she is not.

"Michael, I'm not the right person for you. Even if you're telling the truth and I was a hero, I'm a different person now... A person who is not capable of feats. I was raised in a greenhouse. I know a lot about etiquette, how to keep a house and be a good hostess. My parents chose me the profession of a doctor and my husband. Michael, you changed the past, and my life has become radically different from what you knew in your world, " Jim tried desperately to change her mind.

"I changed you, so I'll change you again. You will have to become a real Jim kirk to save the whole world. Your past in this universe is wrong".

"Then go back to my birthday and change everything. Let me grow up brave and skillful in everything!"

"I can't go back that far now. My suit is damaged. I have only this five — year stretch to the point of no return, and the time where the suit's anchor point is nine hundred years ahead. Only from there can I make jumps on the remaining five-year plan. And there I go back.  
Jim left the bridge and went to McCoy's medical unit.

"Jim, how are you feeling?" the doctor asked worriedly as soon as she came in.

" Don't worry, it's fine. I'm here to catch my breath from talking to Spock and The captain. Spock hates me, even now, knowing the reasons for my actions. Everyone on the ship looks at me like I'm crazy. Only the captain is willing to support me. It turns out that he even asked for me at the Academy when I hacked the Spock imitation test".

"I supported you, too, and I support you, Jim. I don't have the same connections as the Captain, but I still tried to get meeting for your in jail many times. They never let me in. Then came the order for my transfer to the Enterprise. And we flew away for a long time. I tried to find out your fate, and found out that you were acquitted and transferred to serve on the Orville ship. I was happy for you, I tried to contact you - I wrote to you at Orville, but you didn't answer any of my emails. And then it was officially announced that you were killed on a mission on the planet Neo".

"I didn't know you was going to the prison," Jim said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I thought I was alone. Michael never showed up. I was stuck in prison, and everyone turned their back on me. I spent three months in Orville. But I've never received a letter from you".

"I'm very glad you're still alive."

McCoy walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry about Spock, he's an insensitive Vulcan. Which means he can't hate you".

Jim smiled.

"I missed you and our conversations," she said, patting his hand.

"I missed them more," McCoy said, pulling away from the girl. "You had a secret mission all this time at the Academy, and you didn't tell me anything about it".

"I'm sorry, but it was a secret. I really wanted to share it with someone, but it was forbidden. You were my only friend. I didn't want to dump information about the end of the world and drag you into this hell".

"How did you manage to get out of jail?" McCoy asked.

"Why did I get into it, don't you ask?" Or did you believe the rumors, too?" Jim asked with mock resentment, suppressing a smile.

"I'm afraid to ask," McCoy laughed.

"Oy" Jim said, tapping him lightly on the shoulder.

McCoy pulled up a chair for her. "I want to know all the details."

Jim sat down in the proffered chair, and McCoy sat across the table from her.

"I wanted to perform a mind — merging ritual and show Spock the red angel. The arson was not planned. He tried to pull away and threw me at the candles, which immediately ignited my clothes, soaked in alcohol from the bar. A large glass of alcohol was thrown over me in bar".

"Did you try to get into the Vulcan's mind?" the doctor exclaimed in surprise.

"So you weren't interested in the story of how he broke out and threw me at the candles, and you were more surprised that I tried to get into his mind?" Jim chuckled.

"Jim, what did The red angel with the Vulcan tilt teach you? Merging minds is very personal for them. And being forced to do it is worse than being raped".

" Ugh!" said Jim, smiling.

"It's been two years, Jim, and Vulcans have good memories. I don't even know how to help you with it. And yet how did you get out of prison?"

"My mother and my husband's father helped".

"You mean your mother and your stepfather," the doctor corrected, smiling.

"You know he married my mother first, and then he married his son to me".

"Yes, and in our previous conversations, you always talked about your stepfather, not ed's father," McCoy said. " What has changed? He became a "bad guy" for you and you no longer consider him a stepfather, but only the father of your husband?"

"McCoy, finish your psychoanalysis!"

"Okay, okay," he said, holding up his hands.

"Three years after we broke up, ed never told our parents that we'd broken up. They were sure that ed was on an important mission and I was studying in Starfleet to join him. They weren't happy that I went there, but ed convinced them otherwise. My parents found out that I was arrested, and they tried to get me out for three months. They succeeded, though the fight against Spock's Vulcan representatives was difficult. They have good connections and I was cleared of all charges, and I was be indeed transferred to serve on ed's ship".

"Was ed very happy?" McCoy raised his eyebrows.

"It's his own fault. If he had told his parents…

"But you didn't tell me either!"

"They would have killed me, but he wasn't!" Jim pretended to be offended. " I didn't have much contact with my parents during my three years of training, and in moments of conversation I tried to avoid the topic…"

"You were both afraid of your parents!" McCoy's verdict.

"More like we both didn't want to mess with them," Jim corrected.

"And what was on the Orville ship?"

— Oh... Ed was aware of my ill-fated conclusions and accusations of molesting a Vulcan. And do you know who told him all the details?

"Who?"

"Uhura was his new crush at the time".

"How?" McCoy's mouth dropped open.

"I was held in prison for three months. During this time, uhura was transferred to work on the ship where ed was stationed".


	2. 2

About two years ago…

Space ship Orville…

Cabin Jim…

Jim was sitting in a chair near a large porthole. The starlight around her was soothing. The girl earlier used to dream of navigating space with her husband. She was then finishing her studies as a research doctor, and was preparing to transfer to a ship after a six-month internship at the station. All the documents were already prepared for translation when life changed the vector of movement dramatically. No one understood why she changed her mind. Her husband, ed Mercer, and their parents were particularly at a loss.

Jim and ed met when she was fifteen and he was twenty-three.

Jim's mother raised her alone. Her father died almost immediately after her birth. Winona didn't want to hear any more about Starfleet after her husband died. And the daughter tried to keep away from space. She tried to protect her daughter so that the girl would not repeat the fate of her father or her. George kirk died saving the lives of others. It was his personal choice, but most of the ship's crew and Winona and little Jim were still alive. The woman herself turned out to be a lonely widow with a child for many years. As the years passed, Jim helped and supported her mother. She understood Winona's desire to protect her, but often the girl's dreams returned to space. And the first real ray of hope that space is not lost for her, appeared in her fifteenth birthday.  
Jim and his mother moved into the house to Set the new beloved of Winona. They were married almost immediately. Seth was a former captain in Starfleet and had a son, ed, who was at the Academy at the time. Jim rarely saw him, but she always admired him. She loved the stories of her stepfather and his son about everyday life on the ship and at the Academy. Winona saw such expressions of interest, and tried to stifle it, but only provoked her daughter more. Seth came to the rescue with an unusual idea when Jim was seventeen years old. He convinced his wife that if Jim was closely watched on the ship, nothing would happen to her. He offered to marry their children. And he promised that Ed would never repeat the fate of her first husband, George, and would always take care of Jim. Ed liked Jim, but she fell in love with him when she realized that he would be her passport to space, where she had been so attracted since childhood. Or maybe it was a love affair with space, thrown over to a subject who could grant her a wish. Anyway, Jim agreed, and so did Ed.  
Jim and Ed started spending more time together. He tried to come home more often. Jim went to see him at the Academy. They made plans for the future, how they would travel the expanses of space together. Jim had considered going to the Academy, but Winona was Not convinced. Yes, and Seth was supportive of his wife this time. The girl was taught that it is not so easy to get into the Academy, that she will not be able to study there, but will only waste time and nerves. For Jim, they chose to study at the University as a doctor. The Orville ship that ed was already assigned to was not a military ship. It was a family research ship that sailed through known and safe areas of space, collecting information, and delivering cargo to the Federation planets. Jim could work as a doctor on such a ship without training at the Starfleet Academy. Jim married Ed when she was in her third year at University. She and her husband lived separately, and saw each other once every three months, or even once every six months. Ed was constantly on extended business trips to Orville, and Jim was tied to studying at the University.

At the station where her last pre-graduate practice took place, Jim counted the days when she would be able to get to Orville. She chose to practice at the station because it brought her closer to space. But this was not enough for Jim, she wanted to be not in one place, but to see everything, to be in motion in space among the stars. But her plans had to be pushed back a little.

Now she had made it to Orville as the first mate's wife. But with what a reputation. She never showed up for her medical exams and never made it to the final exams at Starfleet Academy. She wasn't allowed to work here on Orville. And it was all over with ed long ago. He had another girlfriend. Jim was assigned a separate cabin, where she almost constantly disappeared. Everyone on the ship was aware of the situation. But even the captain was unable to help Jim get off the ship. The court ordered Jim to be near Ed, otherwise she would be in jail again. Jim could only watch the stars through the porthole and hope that the Red angel would appear and change her direction again, because now she knew that the fate of the world was at stake. But Michael was gone for six months. Jim sent her messages, but no response. She didn't even know if the messages had reached her, if Michael knew that she had been expelled from the Academy, that she had been in prison, and was now on Orville. And all this only served to distance her from her goal of being closer to Spock.  
***

Ship Orville…

Jim's Cabin.

"We should tell our parents that we split up three years ago," Ed said, pacing up and down Jim's cabin.

"We didn't really get along. We've only seen each other every few months over the years, " Jim chuckled, sitting cross — legged on the bed.

"I keep wondering what happened to that charming girl I met the first time when your father brought you to the house with your mother".

"The girl lived in a world of illusions, and she was abruptly lowered, showing the truth and fallacy of the world," Jim said cryptically, watching Ed's restless movement.

"I still don't understand why you wanted a divorce three years ago," the man said.

"I wanted to join Starfleet, and I wanted to achieve something myself, not be your shadow here," Jim made up this excuse when she first told her husband that she was leaving him. She told him this several times, but Ed either forgot or refused to believe it when he asked the question again.

"You would never be my shadow. So it's ambition that's woken up?"

"It was our parents ' decision to marry us, and we were happy with it at that time. But things have changed. I saw something that changed my life positions".

"Your goal in life was to escape into space from your mother's overprotective care. Marriage helped you achieve your goal, and you decided that you could do it yourself".

"Why did you marry me? I was wondering earlier why you agreed to your father's offer. I was shy and afraid to ask. But when I was at Starfleet Academy, I realized your benefits. I knew my father was a hero. But I couldn't imagine that his name had such power in the Academy. My mother said it was hard to get into the Academy, that I couldn't do it. The name of George Kirk alone would have opened the way for me to the far reaches. It also opened the way for you to become a senior assistant at Orville. You're married to George Kirk's daughter, aren't you?"

"Yes, your father's name may have helped me in some way, but I earned the position myself. And if you look deeper, you will find that this is only my merit. Marrying you was as profitable as it was for you. But if I didn't like you, I wouldn't take this step! Yes, Jim, I married you because I fell in love!"

"I liked you, too," she said softly.

"Yes, and your reputation has Overtaken your father's," Ed said with a grin.

"I'm sorry. I didn't plan this. I didn't mean to hurt you".

"And yet here you are, as my wife, and with a reputation as a volcano-crazed madwoman," Ed reminded her again.

Jim only felt sorry for him, when he began to push again.

"I'm not the only one here! I've already heard about you and Uhura!"

"We broke up with you. You walked away from me. I'm free".

"I didn't blame you. I was just stating the fact that you have another Vulcan-obsessed lady sleeping next to you. Unlike me, she had an affair with him".

"I know how you disrupted a date, knocked out Uhura, drugged a Vulcan, and set the house on fire".

"That doesn't sound right coming from you!" Jim grimaced.

"And you think yourself, how can this sound right at all?!"

"I had important information for Spock, but he wouldn't listen to me.

"Normal people don't do that when they other people don't want to listen to them! What did our parents say about this?"

"Well, you should have talked to them yourself and found out…"

"I've had enough of talking to them when they told me to keep a tight rein on you and keep you under tight control, or they'll take away everything I've been able to do with my connections over the years."

"So they didn't approve of the divorce?" the girl asked.

"I didn't have time to mention it".

" Chickened out?" Jim's eyes narrowed.

"You need to convince them that You want a divorce."

"Why me?" Jim exclaimed.

"Because you already asked for it three years ago!" Ed said.

"But you never deigned to give it to me!"

"I didn't have time, and you didn't mention it once".

"I didn't have time, either".

Ed apparently got tired of walking around the cabin, and sat down on the bed with his head on his knees. Jim moved closer to him and ran her hand down his back in a soothing gesture.

"You're not trying to seduce me right now, are you?" Ed's voice sounded strangled.

"I know you like someone else right now, and I've caused a lot of inconvenience. I became a hostage of circumstances. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. How did Uhura take it?"

"She understands, or pretends to. I'm not going to leave her. I finally found a woman in these three years of solitude that suits me".

"Are you going to live on the same ship as your wife and mistress?" Jim chuckled.

"Ex-wife," Ed corrected.

"A soap Opera," Jim said heavily. "I wasn't going to stay here any longer anyway, I'll be leaving you soon."

"XO, you're expected on the bridge."

He got up and left Jim's cabin without saying good-bye.

***

The past continued…

Ship Orvil…

Executive officer's Cabin…

"Stay away from Ed!" Uhura demanded, bursting into the first officer's cabin.

"Chill out! On paper, he is still my husband, so I must demand you to leave him alone!" Jim challenged.

"That's just on paper! Everyone on this ship knows that you abandoned him and switched to a Vulcan".

"So you switched from Vulcan to Ed! And justice prevailed!" Jim waved her hands.

"Your reputation spoils everything he's achieved," Uhura continued, ignoring the comment.

"Are you talking about Ed or Spock? I'm sorry, I'm confused, " Jim spread her hands and pretended to flutter her eyelashes.

"You're a loser! You will remain it!"

"Oh, I would have agreed with you sooner. Especially when I had to go to the Academy, I thought so. But now it's dawned on me that I'm the only variable for everything".

"You're crazy!"

"Aren't you tired of making accusations?" Jim bowed her head.

She didn't take Uhura seriously, and neither did everything else that was happening here. Her task was to get off the ship and save the world.

"Stay away from Ed!" Uhura repeated.

"I'd love to, but could you help me with that… You see, your ex-Vulcan made it a condition that I should be on the ship with my husband. And I don't know how to get around it yet. But if you had asked Spock, out of your old friendship or whatever it was, to waive that condition, I would have been able to stay away from Ed, not just a few cabins away, but at least a few planets away".

"He won't do it for anything!"

"What are you doing here, Jim?" Ed came into the cabin.

"Aren't you going to ask what Uhura is doing here? Oh, Yes, why, and so everything is clear. I decided to continue our heated conversation. But I see you're planning your own hot evening here. I won't bother you."

Jim turned and headed for the door.

"I saw her come into your cabin and decided to talk to her," Jim heard Uhura say before the door closed.

***

The past continued…

Ship Orville.

Three months later.

Executive officer's cabin…

Jim went into Ed's cabin. The door was ajar, and she didn't knock. The lights were dimmed and the music was soft and relaxing. This was one of the things she loved about her husband: the ability to immerse yourself in your own world, to isolate yourself from everyone, and to forget about the hustle and important things for at least an hour. Was Ed waiting for Uhura? Or just resting? At any rate, Jim made sure that Uhura was busy that evening. Jim mixed a strong laxative with an emetic effect in large quantities into the food of the signalman from the evening shift. She felt sorry for the guy, but it was a forced sacrifice. Uhura had to replace him at the bridge post.

Two hours ago, Jim was finally contacted by the Red angel. Nine months had passed since their last meeting. During this time, Jim thought about all possible options, what could happen to Michael, why she didn't show up.  
Ship Orville.

Cabin Jim…

Two hours earlier…

"Michael, where have you been? Did you get my messages?"

"Jim, my trips to you are getting more dangerous. The Artificial Intelligencein this universe showed up a few months ago. My transition was earlier here than his. Your last message was about the planet Neo, and the Orville ship's mission to it".

"Yes. I realize I've been stuck here longer than I'd like. Because of my actions, I was almost a year behind our goal. I've sent you messages so many times. I was hoping you could tell me what to do next. I wanted to get Spock's attention at the Academy, so I hacked his test to simulate an enemy attack. Because of this, I was expelled. I might never have had a chance to inject the drug you gave Spock and pass on your message. I made another one before the end of the rash act…"

"Jim, I know everything. I followed your fate. I was trying to influence something… But it doesn't matter now. You may be a long way from Spock, but you are very close to our ultimate goal. You must get to the planet Neo".

"Why? I'll be dropped off at the gas station tomorrow before Orville leaves for Neo. It took me three months to implement a legitimate plan to get off the ship. And now you're saying that I should stay and somehow get to the planet? Couldn't you have shown up earlier? At least I did my best not to run away from Orville, but to Become a member of the team. Even if I say I've changed my mind and stay on the ship, I won't be allowed on the planet! I'm not part of officers or lieutenants!"

"Do you have any codes permit the opening of the computers of the Federation".

"Yes, I remember. I just used them to beat my way out of here. But so that no one noticed, I had to stretch it out for three months!"

"Give the order to yourself, as if it came from headquarters, that you are being promoted to the rank of ensign. No one will suspect anything. This title is not enough, but it will give you the opportunity…"

"It won't do anything. Ed first mate and my part-time husband, whatever my rank, won't let me on the planet. He has a lot of reasons for this. And I note that not all of them are my fault".

"Think of a way to change your husband's mind!"

"Ha," said Jim nervously.

"Neo was a thriving planet. A few months ago, in an instant, it turned into an abandoned wasteland. All life has disappeared from the planet. The Federation is sending Orville, since you are the only ship that is near these borders. They don't expect an attack, so they send you. Officially a few months ago, the radiation has consumed the planet. It is only now possible to land on it. The scanning devices didn't detect the living. But this is the Artificial Intelligence planet. It was this planet that was his point of transition and the opening of a portal from one Universe to another. A whole planet from my universe was transferred to this world, erasing this one. This is the main headquarters of the Artificial Intelligence. Orville's Team will be looking for innovative things that were developed on the planet, but were kept secret from the Federation. Your task is to find traces of the Artificial Intelligence, and his main server to enter into his system".

"So you're not betting on Spock anymore?" Jim asked.

"I bet on a lot of things at once. Your task is to be there tomorrow".

***

Ship Orville…

Executive officer's room... two hours later... continued…

Jim had to change plans very quickly again. And to think of a better way to fall at the feet of her husband, so that he left her on the ship, and also to convince her to take her to the planet in a reconnaissance group. The only way she could see was to seduce him. Uhura will have to make room again. She hated herself for what she was going to do and cause more trouble. But Jim reassured herself that it was to save the world. And hoped that captain Jim kirk would have approved of this decision.

"Jim?" Ed asked, coming out of the shower.

"Nice robe," — said Jim, nodding at the white fluffy robe that covered only the back point.

"You want me to take it off and give it back to you?"

"It was my gift to you a little over three years ago, and gifts don't come back. But you're right about something else, I want you to take it off".

"Jim, what do you want?" Ed asked wearily as he passed his wife.

He went to the sofa and sat down, sighed heavily, and crossed his arms.

"Why immediately defensive posture? Can't a wife come to her husband?"

"Ex — wife," he reminded her, forcing a smile through tightly clenched lips.

"We haven't formally divorced yet. I want to receive and pay my marital debt".

Ed coughed nervously in response.

"You get off at the station tomorrow morning, and we go on. You've been trying to get off the ship for three months, and now you've decided to ruin my personal life for the last time?"

"Uhura won't find out," Jim promised.

"So wait, is it your doing that she was called in for a shift?" Ed suddenly realized.

"You know, I can't believe we've come to this," Jim said, sitting down next to him, and ed moved a little away. "You remember when we first met. You came home for the holidays. Our parents officially got together, and my mother and I moved in with you. I saw you and was stunned. You became my Prince at first sight".

"I saw a cute girl hiding her eyes," ed said, relaxing a little. "All our interactions from the day before you decided to leave me can be described in one word: "Cute"! What happened to you? Where is the girl who won me over?"

"She's right in front of you!" Jim whispered, turning to face him.

"Now I see a charming, impudent, mad woman, but not a sweet creature!"

"Charming," Jim said, licking her lips.

"Who taught you to seduce men like that? Spock? I thought Vulcans were cold."

"I haven't met Spock. I haven't dated anyone since I broke up with you!"

"Really?"

"Yes. I was busy with important things, and I wasn't interested in relationships, but now I realized that if I left, I would lose my last chance".

Jim pressed her lips to Ed's before he could stop himself. Under the passionate kiss, the man did not notice how the girl injected him with the drug. It was the only way she could be sure that her husband wouldn't push her away. And in the morning, when everything is already done, he will not escape.  
***

Ship Orville…

Morning…

First mate's cabin…

"Jim, get up". Ed put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll leave now and Uhura won't find out. We can meet in secret, " Jim whispered, laughing softly from under the covers.

"The ship is docked at the station, and you should be there before we leave. You have an hour left!" Ed looked at his watch. He threw off the covers and got out of bed. Otherwise you'll be late, and stay here!

“Darling, didn't I tell you yesterday that I’m staying,” Jim crawled out from under the blanket.

"No, Jim! Don't do this to me. You promised to walk out of my life! Last night was a mistake!"

"I thought it was a pleasant memory," Jim said, smiling.

"Ed, " came a knock and Uhura's voice outside the door.

"Jim, you must hide!" the man looked at her pleadingly.

"Hiding your wife from your mistress!" Jim whispered sarcastically.

"Please!" he said harshly.

"Okay, but on one condition. You're taking me to the planet Neo as part of a scouting team".

"Why would you do that? No matter. I can't do it anyway. You're not in the ship's headquarters! According to the rules, you can't be there!"

"You're the first mate! Think of something. Let's put a few people out of action, and I'll replace someone".

"Get him out of standing? Is this how you deprived Uhura of a night's rest?"

Uhura rapped harder on the door.

"I'll be on that planet, no matter which way".

Jim stood up, grabbing an armful of her things from the floor, and hurried into the bathroom.

Ed opened the door and ushered Uhura in.

"What took you so long?" "what is it?" she asked as she entered the cabin.

"I was asleep," he said, rubbing his eyes. " How was the shift?"

" It is normal. Your wife hasn't left the ship yet!" Uhura said.

"She's changed her plans," the man sighed heavily.

"This woman is dangerous. I can't imagine how you married her and lived".

Ed rubbed his eyes again.

"She knocked me out, almost burned me and house of Spock down!" I broke up with Spock because of her".

"But now you're with her husband! This round is yours! Or do you want to go back to Spock?"

"Ed, you forgot to insert the word ex-husband. But no, I haven't forgotten, because you haven't divorced yet!"

At that moment, there was a crash in the bathroom.

"Who have you got there?" without waiting for an answer, Uhura ran to the door, flung it open, and froze in place.

Jim was hugging the toilet.

"Good morning, Uhura. I think I caught the virus, just like your colleague".

Jim managed to get dressed. She was listening to the conversation behind the wall when she accidentally knocked a faceted glass off the table. The girl immediately rushed to the toilet, and hugged him, pretending to be ill.

"Your wife won this round, too," Uhura said, turning and heading for the exit.

"Catch up with her, tell her that I just got here and I got sick!" Jim whispered.

"I'm tired of looking like an idiot and making other people look like idiots. Uhura understood".

"She'll leave you."

"You've seen her, she's already left".

***

Planet Neo…

A few hours later...

Jim was not to put any more pressure on Ed. He was right, she had ruined his life once again. She had to be a bitch to him… But otherwise, she would not have been able to follow the path of the red angel.

Jim looked at the data on scientific research that had previously been conducted on the planet and that the Federation wanted to find. One of the directions is selective genetics in medicine. This was the subject that Jim had been working on in practice at the station where she had almost died. With this information, the girl came to the captain and offered help in finding the necessary information. To her good fortune, there were no more specialists in this field on the ship. And the choice was influenced by the documents for the position of ensign, which she still made for herself.

To Ed's surprise, the captain immediately agreed to the offer.

Ten people landed on one continent of the planet Neo, where the planet resembled a desert, and twenty on another, where one mountain passed into another.

Ed was the head of the group that Jim was in. They got a mountainous area. Uhura asked to join another group.

"Ed, I'm sorry. I will disappear from your life after this assignment. This is important to me. I'm sorry that I'm only bringing trouble into your life. You deserve better, " Jim said sincerely.

" Don't get distracted! You want for helping, so help. The captain is counting on you. Your territory is here, " he pointed to the pad map. "You should be back in three hours, just like everyone else. If you're late, I won't wait for you."

"What if something happens to me?" Jim asked, feigning horror.

"Something's going to happen to the planet!" Ed Grimaced in disbelief.

"And you won't even give me a Phaser?"

"We scanned the planet, there are no living creatures here. You don't threatens.

Jim left with just a tricorder to scan.

***

Planet Neo…

Two days later…

Jim was leaning against one of the cave walls. She could hear a continuous hum coming from the surface of the planet. Nature raged for the second day. The cave became a temporary shelter for her. It was dry and there was no wind. The faint light from the device in the pitch darkness was like a support for the girl's shattered nerves. She climbed deep into the cave, where the tricorder finally stopped displaying the threatening radiation numbers. It was a relatively safe place for a few hours. Now we need to move even further, the device again began to show off-scale radiation figures.

***

Two days ago, Jim was searching the property as she passed another mountainside when she tripped over something. It was a manhole cover. Below it was the entrance to an underground cave. The tricorder couldn't detect the recess until she went inside. This place was definitely hidden and there were deposits of unknown origin that prevented scanning. Jim had already scolded herself a hundred times for not rushing to get help right away, but decided to go a little deeper into the cave. The tricorder scanned with interference and showed only two meters back and forth. His actions here were limited. In another situation, she would have acted differently, and would have been safe on the ship now. She had a double task. One from the ship's command, the other from the red angel. Jim was looking for Signs of a artificial intelligence. If there was a trapdoor, then there must have been something important before, she reassured herself as she moved step by step inside the cave. Jim a couple of times it seemed that I had stumbled on traces of something, but in the end the tricorder stopped working altogether. The girl was in complete darkness. The return trip took a considerable time. Several times, Jim thought that she was completely lost, and hoped that the rescue team would find her. After three hours of wandering, she came to the surface. But when she got out, a stream of scalding wind and water immediately flowed into her. A flash lit up the sky, and against the lightning she saw the Shuttle from their ship moving away. There was no connection. Jim wanted to hurry to the drop-off point, hoping someone was still there. They were all due back in three hours. She was obviously late. But the weather did not allow us to go even a hundred meters. The wind picked up, and a huge yellow-green radiation cloud appeared on the horizon. The tricorder started working again, and the device showed a dangerous level of radiation. Scanning the area ahead, Jim realized that she was alone. She had no choice but to return to the cave. The radiation level was increasing by the minute. Jim went further and further into the cave, where the radiation was less, but the tricorder was working worse.  
***

"Michael, you're the reason I'm stuck on this planet, " Jim said to herself. She hoped that the Red angel would contact her and be able to save her.

"You've changed my whole life. My existence was no longer important… Life has become unimportant. I'm not important anymore, just a goal we need to achieve. I did everything you told me to do. But they led to a dead end. We never got close to Spock. The only time was when I was able to get relatively close to him, but after that, he forbade me to approach him under judicial threat".

***

Planet Neo…

Cave…

A few hours later…

"Michael, I need your help right now. You constantly throw off the burden of responsibility for the Universe on me… You give me crumbs of information, and you want me to change the world. But I can't. I'm only human. I followed your instructions for several years. Lost hope and gained again. I gave up my husband, my family life, my career, and so much more. I want to take the time back and change my mind. Go the other way. Yes, I may only have five years to live. But I will have a life, not the state of existence I'm stuck in. You're traveling through time. Technology is available to you. When you get to me in the future... I'll probably be gone, but maybe somehow you can adjust to the part of Vulcan Katra left in me, and understand my last thoughts. Yes, I remember that you gave part of Katra to me so that I could merge my mind with Spock and transmit your message. But he was so opposed to me that he didn't even notice that a human has this ability to unite, and also a part of the Katra - Vulcan soul. Or maybe he just didn't care. Maybe Katra will serve a different purpose…"

"I hope you go back in time and let me take a different path. In this life in this Universe, I'm not the great captain Jim kirk you showed me. The man is brave and courageous, saving Universes and establishing the world. I am a woman, an ordinary doctor, and then chose the direction not to treat people, but to engage in crossing genes. The world has changed because of you, and you are trying to restore it to its former state. But no matter what we do, it doesn't work. Michael, I'm going crazy. The darkness, hunger, and thirst are driving me crazy. Only the light from the tricorder, which I rarely turn on, and my own voice keep me from falling completely into the maelstrom of insanity. But I'm not sure if I'll be there soon, or if I'm already there.

***

Planet Neo…

Caves…

A year and six months later…

"Careful," said a voice nearby, awakening the girl's consciousness.

The pitch blackness parted, bringing her out of oblivion.

Jim tried to focus on the voice, but the sound eluded her. She couldn't open her eyes or even move her fingers… Paralyzed… The resulting terror and fear helped hold the attention here and now.

"Her vital signs are stable," the same voice said again.

"Do not rush to remove her from the capsule. We need to make sure we don't kill her by getting her out of here, " a commanding voice said.

"The Red angel showed us the way here, it must be important!" the other sounded flat, unemotional voice.

"I'm disconnecting her from the capsule's electromagnetic elements".

Why are there so many voices? Where are they from? Jim seemed to grasp them like soap bubbles, trying to understand something, but they burst and disappeared.

"She's in suspended animation".

"We need to detach this electrode from her forehead, too".

"Captain pike, I know this girl. We studied with it together. She was also supposed to join you on the Enterprise, but commander Spock suspended her.

What a familiar voice. Jim tried to remember it, holding her mind more and more.

"This Is Jim Kirk. Doctor, I gave her a well-deserved suspension".

Jim finally recognized the voices. They belonged to McCoy, Pike, and Spock. But how can they be here? And where is she? Why can't he move and open his eyes?

"Captain, we've looked through all the other compartments. She's the only one here".

"How did she end up here? Alone?"

***

The Enterprise Ship…

Honey block…

A few hours later…

"Hey, Jim".

"McCoy," Jim opened her eyes, " is that really you?" she asked, uncertain but hopeful. Her voice was weak and quiet. McCoy leaned a little closer to her bed.  
" Yes, it's me," the doctor said, and smiled broadly. "You're safe. We got you out. I don't know how you got caught up in all this, but you have to tell me before the others come running. As your best friend from the Academy, I have the right to be the first to know".

"Where am I?" Jim tried to turn her head, but it didn't work very well.

"Don't rush, we're still in rehab. Soon you'll be able to run around the ship like you did in the halls of the Academy."

"Are we on a ship?" the girl was surprised.

"Yes. This Is The Enterprise. The ship of our dreams. Remember how we planned to work here together, " McCoy reminded her.

"And your dream came true. I'm happy for you".

"Well, you ended up here, too. Very unexpected and enchanting, of course. You should have seen commander Spock's face".

"Spock? " she asked excitedly.

"Yes, he's the first mate. So don't tell me you're still interested in this Vulcan?

"My life has fallen into a deep hole because of him".

"He may have suspended you, but I don't think he's responsible for where we found you."

"How did you find me?" Jim asked. There were so many thoughts in her head that she couldn't immediately put them together and sort them out in order of importance.

"We've been following the red angel creature's signals for a couple of weeks now. We still don't know if he's an enemy or a friend…"

" Red angel," said Jim. "She still managed to save me".

"She?"

"The red angel is a persone, a woman".

"The situation is gaining momentum. I think I need to call the captain and Spock".  
***

"Hello, Jim," the captain said, entering the room with the first officer.

Spock nodded in greeting, moving closer to the bed.

"The doctor said that you have the important information," cutting to the chase say the Vulcan.

"Hello, captain, Pike," Jim said, ignoring Spock.

"Jim, what happened to you on the planet?" the captain asked. "Start at the beginning".

"If I start over, us will have to go back to the time when I started my studies… Three and a half years ago..."

"Jim, we didn't start school three and a half years ago," McCoy interrupted.

"How long has it been?" the sudden realization showed on her face in horror.

"Five years".

"It turns out that for a year and a half I was alone on the planet in a cave… They didn't come back for me from the ship. They all think I'm gone..."

"What ship were you on?" Pike asked.

"Orville".

Jim closed her eyes. She couldn't control her emotions. What a great captain Jim kirk she was, as Michael claimed, when she couldn't even control herself. Yes, she put an end to her life long ago, giving herself completely to the mission… But the large amount of information in her head, which she tried to analyze, remember, and at the same time talk, put her off balance.

"We'll contact them," the captain promised. "Why did they leave you?"

"We were looking for data for the Federation," the girl sniffed. "I found a cave, and my instruments failed. I was stuck there, and when I got out, a radiation light show started on the planet. I saw our Shuttle take off, but I couldn't contact them. I had to go back to the cave. A few days later, I found a hidden lab in one of the labyrinthine underground passages. The radiation was getting closer. The only way out was to hide in the cryo-pod there. I was hoping they'd find me. But I didn't expect it to take a year and a half.

"You said," Pike said, " that it all started during your studies…"

"A little earlier… The Red angel contacted me".

"Do you know who this is?" Spock asked.

"Yes, this is a woman with time travel capabilities. It showed me what would happen to all living things in our universe. Complete destruction. I had to help her stop it".

"Go on," the captain said, when Jim stopped abruptly, considering what to say.

"The red angel's name is Michael, and she's commander Spock's sister".

"I don't have a sister," the Vulcan said.

"And I'm not a brave ship's captain in this world, and I'm not a man either".

"What do you mean, Jim?" McCoy asked.  
"The red angel is leading us on a path," Spock said. "Does she have a plan? Where will it lead us?"

"Michael has already led you to the planet Neo. In another world, this was the main headquarters of the AI, when it moved to this dimension, the planet was replaced by his. Therefore, all the people disappeared from it in an instant, and communication with the Federation was cut off. And we don't have much time" Jim looked at the calendar hanging on the wall.

"What is the short time left?" McCoy asked ahead of the others.

"There are ten days left until the day of the point of no return. From this moment, the cleanup of all living things will begin. We have to stop the AI. To do this, you need to go down to the planet and find the main server to its virtual world. I was trying to find some trace of AI on the planet, as Michael directed".

"Jim, you were in a cryo-pod, " McCoy said. "If this is the AI headquarters, then you were in its domain, connected to a variety of devices. He could have gotten to you, " McCoy said, voicing everyone's thoughts. Spock and the captain remained silent, listening intently.

"He couldn't get to me. I'm on your side, " Jim said.

"But you can still be dangerous," Spock disagreed.

"Mr. Spock, the night I accidentally set your house on fire, I was trying to get a message to you from Michael. I didn't mean any harm in any way. I was misunderstood. And now you misunderstand the situation. I'm the only person who can help you".

"I think it's best to keep her here under close supervision," Spock told the captain.

"Jim, you need medical attention," the captain said." And we will deal with the solution".

"Captain pike, please contact Orville. Their ship must have some data on the planet Neo that they discovered a year and a half ago. Maybe this will help. And before you set foot on the planet Neo, send the ship's crew to the nearest station. Leave only a minimum of personnel to operate the ship. AI can infiltrate people. If you discover something and fail, the AI will take over the world faster, and the point of no return will come sooner".

"Then we won't bring it any closer. We'll check the data, but we won't be landing on the planet yet. And you need to recover".  
"Michael saved the world, and accidentally changed some events, which in turn changed many other things. The universe has changed, and we are all with it. Michael has tried to contact you many times, commander Spock. But it didn't work out. She told me that you were dyslexic as a child, confused by Vulcan and human feelings. Michael helped you get out of that state in another world. In this altered universe, you didn't have a sister, and you probably had to cope in a different way, which made the human part unavailable. It is because of the two balanced sides in the original world that the Red angel contacted you, but now he could not. There is no balance. In that other universe, the connecting point to the Red Angel was you, not me".

"If this is true, why didn't you tell me this during academy?" Spock asked, clasping his hands behind his back.

"At that time, no one knew about the Red angel and time travel. You wouldn't believe me. But the day you suspended me from the Academy, I still took the risk, and then I was very sorry".

"How do we contact The red Angel?" Pike asked.

"It communicates herself. It's not easy".

"We saw the signals in space, and the red angel shape in them," the captain began. "Wherever they went, something always happened. We did not understand that this was a warning or, on the contrary, the signature of the instigator of the threat. Photon particles with time shifts were found in place of the signals! These were the remnants of temporary wormholes. We had the assumption that time travel was available to this creature. Some time later, we came across a living Sphere that transmitted to our ship a huge amount of data on all possible Universes, Galaxies, and creatures living there. We were able to analyze some things. And we're looking at the time travel files." Jim realized that there was a lot he wasn't telling her, just like she was. "Who was the Red angel fighting? Who caused almost everything to die?" the captain asked after a pause.

"Michael doesn't stop fighting. The enemy is a artificial intelligence. She destroyed him at the design base, and the world changed, but he was able to transfer from the primary universe to this one without being touched. And although it was not created in our world, it still exists here, as well as Michael, who was not born here. The traffic controller hunts for the data that the Sphere uploaded. You must protect them at all costs".


	3. 3

The present

Medical department ...

"And then you know what happened," Jim finished her story. “You found me in a cave, and then they didn't let me out of the infirmary for five days.

"Jim, we had to check you and the information you told us. There are many different things in digital data from the Sphere. We found a detailed manufacture of a device that helps to understand if there is AI in a person".

"That's what it was!" the girl remembered an unusual device. They scanned her with a strange device that she had never seen before. Nobody answered her what it was.

"Yes," McCoy confirmed. “You were clean, and we freed you. Captain Pike has relocated most of the crew to the nearest stations as you requested. We looked at the Sphere data for what could help us in the fight against AI. During this time, the captain contacted the Orville ship. They were six days away from us. Now there are less than a day left. You will see your husband. Do you know that you are the captain's wife now? McCoy raised an eyebrow and smiled".

"Ed got promoted?"

Jim was happy for her ex-husband. She ruined his life, which she very much regretted. But still, perhaps fate compensated him for this with an excellent career. At least here he was lucky.

"Yes. After what you said, I am very curious to see your reunion. And one more thing ... Guess who his first mate is?"

“If you tell Uhura it won't be funny,” joked Jim.

“Well, then we won't laugh when Captain Ed Mercer and his first mate Nyota Uhura step on board".

"Oh no," Jim didn't feel well.

“You, Uhura Ed, Spock, an interesting quadrangle looms,” McCoy chuckled.

"It's a hell of a mix. Michael will be also here. And you can blow up the Enterprise with such a bunch.

"And I would add Spock's fiancée to this company. Then it will definitely be interesting," McCoy did not stop having fun.

"Does Spock have a fiancee?" Jim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. Spock has a fiancee on Vulcan. Did you know that Vulcans get their children engaged since childhood?"

-It turns out he was cheating on his fiancee? - Jim was surprised, thinking about his life in the academy and connection with Uhura.

\- They have everything there is somehow complicated. I found out myself recently. When Spock joined Starfleet, he ended his engagement. The Vulcan first saw his bride in childhood during a ceremony, and the second time when he renounced his duties. You probably don't know ... While you were frozen, an attempt was made on the planet Vulcan. A lot of everything burned out on the planet. An evacuation was announced, something was destroying the core of the planet, but no one could figure out what. Earthquakes and then lava hit the surface. Suddenly, everything stopped by itself, leaving a lot of damage.

-Michael told that in one of the timelines that she saw - the planet died. There are very few Vulcans left there, - Jim remembered one of the conversations.

-This time the planet remained, but the number of representatives of this species has sharply decreased. Do you think the Red Angel could be involved in what happened there?

"She could have been the one who stopped everything. This is her planet. She grew up there. I haven't seen Michael for a year and a half. A lot has happened in that time, ” Jim said thoughtfully. “And that Spock decided to return to the obligations he was given to this woman as a child?

\- He was lonely. His bride lost the man she loved during the destruction. Her family invited Spock to restore vows and unite families for the future of the Vulcans.

"Is he going to leave the Enterprise and return to Vulcan?" - said the girl.

-He postponed this topic for now as the Red Angel appeared. A convenient excuse, ” the man shrugged.

-Maccoy! I need your help! - mischievous lights appeared in Jim's eyes.

-What are you up to this time? the doctor asked cautiously.

"I have to get to Spock's brain and open up blocked parts of the human psyche," Jim blurted out. She decided to reveal a little more information to a friend. - Spock will be facing an AI battle. Michael said that in such a state with a purely Vulcan psyche, he would not survive the battle. Even at the academy, I realized that emotions in Spock can be evoked by the female species. I need to push him against the bride!

-Do you want to move Tibrin here? McCoy shook his head disapprovingly.

-I understand that this is not the right place and time, but we will not have another. Five days left to the point of no return!

\- I don’t even know how you’re going to pull it off ... But if you succeed, do you imagine that Spock will have to collide with you, Uhura and Tibrin at the same time? This is the first time I feel sorry for this Vulcan. Three women...

-Not three, but five!

-Do you want to find human feelings in him or burn them completely? And who are the other two women? - the man shouted with emotion.

-Michael Spock's sister and another girl ...

Jim said nothing about her. It was her secret trump card, no one should have known about her.

\- Looks like I need to get a wagon of Vulcan sedatives ready! There was no more gaiety in the doctor's voice.

-How can I contact Tibrin?

"Are you serious? Jim, don't screw it up again!" the man warned.

\- I never wanted to spoil anything. Events were dictated by themselves. You know the reason.

-Yes, now I understand your past actions. But still I tell you no with Tibrin!

-Okay.

-Okay? - the doctor was surprised.

“Yes, okay,” the girl said mysteriously.

***

Transporting.

Sixteen hours later.

Jim, Captain Pike, Spock, and Dr. McCoy greeted the guests in the transport room.

"Ready to meet your husband?" McCoy asked quietly, leaning towards the girl.

-If I say no, will it change anything? - just as quietly replied Jim, tensely awaiting the moment of arrival.

In the next instant, two people began to materialize on the platform.

“Hello Captain Ed Mercer,” Captain Pike greeted as soon as the transport ended. “Let me introduce my first mate Mr. Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy. Jim Kirk you know."

-Hello Captain Christopher Pike. This is my first assistant Nyota Uhura, - Ed nodded towards the girl, not taking his eyes off Jim.

“Let's go to my office,” Pike said, pointing to the door.

Ed and Uhura stepped off the platform.

"I'm glad you got out," Jim said quietly as Uhura approached her.

\- We all got out, even you, - the girl answered emotionlessly, passing by.

Jim was surprised by Uhura's reaction. She remembered the events in the virtual world of the Regulator, which she kept silent about on the Enterprise. Uhura was trapped and Jim helped her escape. They were able to reconcile their differences. And now she didn't react in any way. She didn't even glance at Spock. Did she forget him, or did she and Ed have a strong relationship? Jim watched her as she followed the captain and the rest of the crew.

-Jim! - Ed touched the girl's hand, as if checking if she was real.

-Hello, Ed, - Jim put her hand on top of his and squeezed a little. “Stop looking at me like a ghost,” she smiled.

\- I couldn't believe you were alive. Captain Pike contacted us, I thought at first that he said that they found your body, but you are alive! - Ed said a little confusedly.

\- A storm started on the planet, and I got stuck in a cave. I was unable to contact you. The device did not work.

-We have been waiting for you until the last moment. The radiation storm would have engulfed us if we hadn't left the next second.  
***

Captain Pike's office.

Five people and one Vulcan sat at the negotiating table. They discussed a reconnaissance mission to the planet Neo that Orville had done a year and a half ago.

Ed brought it up to date on what happened to his group. The radiation storm was predicting nothing on the instruments. It started suddenly. They had to evacuate. Everyone returned to the meeting place except Jim. A group on another continent where Uhura was contacted. They found the bunker by the time the storm began. Ed couldn't take them. The radiation storm completely engulfed the other continent in an instant, cutting off communications, and headed for them. Its speed and power were amazing.

“Our group is stuck on another continent of the planet,” Uhura said. - "We were relatively lucky, at the time of the storm we were in the bunker. We had to live there for a month. There was enough food, water and air."

"Are you stuck for a month?" Jim was surprised.

“Yes, the storm didn’t drop its positions for a month,” Ed replied, instead of Uhura. " All this time Orville has been in orbit of the planet. We were looking for you too, Jim, when we were able to land again a month later. But finding nothing, we flew off the planet."

"When the storm started, I was in a cave. I spent several days there, trying not to go crazy," Jim focused on the last word. “There was a secret laboratory in one of the passages. I examined it, and found the diaries and journals of scientists. I realized that there was research on mind control, while the body was frozen in a cryo capsule. This was my lifeline. Only in a cryo capsule could I survive. I had no water or food, and the radiation kept increasing wherever I went in the cave. And the weather continued to rage on the surface."

“Your mission a year and a half ago on Neo was very important,” Captain Pike said. “We need all the data you could get from there".

\- As we promised, they brought everything with them, - Ed pulled out a flash card and put it on the table.

“We'll be sure to check what you found,” Captain Pike said. “But you also need to know what's going on here. Dr. McCoy will bring you up to date while we process your data.

Jim looked at Pike and did not understand what was happening. The Captain and Spock stood up.

"Ensign Kirk, we will need you," said the captain, walking to the exit.

Jim got up and followed them. Everything she expected from the meeting went wrong. Spock and Uhura did not react to each other's presence in any way, as if they were strangers before. Pike and Spock were obviously up to something, but it was kept secret from her. Even McCoy was in the loop, Jim was sure, since he was left with the guests.

***

The Captain and Spock led Jim to another office.

-Captain, what's going on? - asked Jim, going inside.

-You were on a planet owned by the Regulator. It took us a while to check on you. Now we need to check them, ” Pike pointed to the monitor on the table. On the screen was the captain's office and three people there.

"We cannot trust them," Spock said. “They, like their data, can be dangerous. This computer is not connected to our system, ”the Vulcan pointed to a nearby table,“ and their data will not be able to harm us in any way".

Spock inserted the USB stick into the device.

Jim sat with the captain and watched McCoy talk about how they found her, about the Regulator and the Red Angel. During this time, Spock was looking at the data at another table.

***  
McCoy managed to tell almost a whole story, keeping silent about important facts, when he was called to the medical unit. He excused himself and went out, leaving the guests alone.

-Ed, what was that? Uhura asked reproachfully.

-What are you talking about?

\- I'm about Jim. This is not your wife anymore, but you throw such looks at her that it becomes uncomfortable for our plan.

-She's alive. You know how hard it was to get over her loss. Scandals with my parents that I didn't save my wife. It was my fault that I took her to the planet and did not keep track. I left Jim.

\- I thought we sorted it out. What happened in your wife's life had nothing to do with you. Remember, when we got back from Neo and started checking the ship for the Regulator codes, we found the coded records to the Red Angel from Jim that she was transmitting to the far line station. Jim's consciousness was eclipsed and turned into a follower of the Red Angel and the Regulator. You saw the prediction that we found on Neo. The traffic controller and the Red Angel will destroy all life in the universe. They need to be stopped. Your ex-wife was only alive because the AI saved her. My part of the group that remained on the planet was more fortunate. Perhaps because we knew right away that he was an enemy. But Jim was with him and the Red Angel.

-You found information in that bunker about what happened to the previous universe. But how can we be completely sure ...

-You saw your wife and began to doubt. We've been tracking the Red Angel for a year and a half. We found traces of it near the planets on which large-scale incidents soon took place. The information was confirmed. People from another universe warned us. We've seen Regulator codes infiltrated into the Federation system. They are the same as recorded on planet Neo. Remember, we have a secret mission from the Federation. You are the captain now, ”Uhura pressed psychologically.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Ed grunted displeasedly.

-Ed, I agreed to be the first mate and help you with everything when our captain is gone. We had to continue his work, the mission to save humanity. The Regulator penetrated deeply into many structures. We cannot retreat a single step now. Jim is the enemy.

-We never saw the Red Angel as an enemy of the Regulator. But the Enterprise thinks so.

\- They didn't know anything about the Regulator until Jim showed up. But they knew about the Red Angel and her appearances near planets with large-scale incidents. They also considered her an enemy in the beginning. But Jim influenced them. This ship has information from the Sphere that we have not been able to obtain. Only this data can prevent the destruction of the world. But they will not be given to us so easily. Jim has probably already made it to them.

-I need to talk to the captain and tell everything. With the Enterprise, we will be stronger.

-And if he is under the influence of the Regulator ... Where is the guarantee that we will not be destroyed immediately? Follow logic, not feelings!

***

Jim looked at Pike, then turned to Spock. She worried that what she heard might affect them.

“Jim, don’t worry, I believe you,” the captain assured, as if reading her mind. “They hid important details from us.

\- Ensign Kirk, I also think that the information you gave us is more logical than the unconfirmed conversation in the next office. Yes, even with their files, not everything is so simple.

-What is it, Spock? Pike asked.

Jim was able to catch her breath and breathe freely again.

-There is encrypted data that needs access from Federation computers. Why hide them like that, I don't understand. And if they now say to each other that the Regulator has reached the Federation system, hiding them under these codes is useless, and even on the contrary, it is dangerous. Much does not add up here. I also have additional devices in the laboratory to break this data outside the ship's system.

-Spock, be careful. They admitted that they needed data from the Sphere. McCoy will return and scan them for AI. Then we will understand if they are simply mistaken or there is something more confusing ...

Spock walked out of the office, leaving Jim and Pike to continue watching the action through the computer.

-Why do you believe me? Jim ventured to ask.

\- You saved my life five years ago. As I understand it, in fact it was the command of the Red Angel, - the captain shared his thoughts.

Jim nodded.

-You are hiding a lot, as are we. But we have a common goal.

-So then, if I hadn't saved you then ...

\- If Michael hadn't saved you at the station too, you wouldn't have been there, then I wouldn't have been.

-We are pawns in a big game.

\- Neither you nor I are pawns. And I consider myself more of a horse, - Pike smiled enigmatically. “You’re probably a bishop, and Spock is a rook."

\- Then the world and all of humanity is the king, and the queen is Michael, - Pike Jim finished the thought.

-We have taken our positions, now we need to decide where our guests will stand.

Pike looked at the monitor. Ed and Uhura continued their conversation.

"Jim, I think you need to go to your ex-husband and talk to him," Pike focused on the word "husband." “I'll warn Spock. He will take care of Uhura".

***

Jim went into the captain's office just as Ed was leaving.

“Ed,” Jim dodged, almost bumping into him at full speed.

“I was on my way to find you,” Ed stopped at the exit. " I wanted to apologize for leaving on the planet".

-You acted like a commander. You didn't have a choice. You thought logically that I was swallowed up by a storm. You have nothing to apologize for.

Jim really wasn't mad at him. She is glad that he and his team survived.

The girl walked over to the table and nodded Ed to follow her.

“I didn't even give you a phaser,” the man said regretfully.

“It wouldn't be useful to me,” Jim assured.

-So, you and the Red Angel from the very beginning of our breakup ... - Jim nodded in response. - We have been trying for a year and a half to solve the riddle that we found on the planet. We left the only person who could answer these secrets on the planet.

“We made an equal exchange with the planet,” joked Jim. She wanted to defuse the situation. - The planet gave you a riddle, but took me.

Jim understood that Ed, despite his sincere regret, was playing a game with her. She overheard their conversation with Uhura. Ed was not going to share the true data with her, he dripped deeper under her. Okay, the captain told me to take care of him, so she will.

\- Such a load was on your shoulders, and we did not know anyone. Five years is a long time.

-I just hope that now you understand the reason why I left you.

-Yes, I understand that. Spock is also associated with the Red Angel?

Jim had heard what McCoy had told guests when they were in the other office. He omitted the parts that Jim had personally told him. Yes, and that Michael - Red Angel Spock's sister also kept silent. He presented only general facts. Jim herself was also in no hurry to give out all the moves, and substitute Spock.

-Why has your reputation been tarnished by the Vulcan? And now you are on the same ship with him, although the court forbade you to be so close.

-Are you jealous? Jim raised an eyebrow, trying to get away from the question.

“I'm trying to figure it out,” Ed smiled, looking down.

\- The Red Angel wanted me to be on the Enterprise. To do this, I needed to gain Spock's trust. But after I hacked his student simulation, my chances were lost. I decided to tell him everything about the Red Angel, and that I need to be aboard his ship, but he did not believe me, - Jim corrected the story on the way.

\- Why did you have to be here? - continued to pry Ed.

-Onboard the Enterprise has information from the Sphere, have you heard of that?

Ed nodded. Well, at least in this he did not lie to her now.

\- There is information on how to destroy the Regulator. The Red Angel knew that the Sphere would transfer the files to the Enterprise. We have now received more data from you.

-So, we have a common goal to save humanity. In our data, you will find information about the prediction: the destruction of all living things.

-Red Angel told me about it.

They seemed to be playing with each other, telling part of the truth and keeping silent about big things. Step forward, step to the side was their verbal dance.

-Why did you believe the Red Angel? - came from the other side of the topic Ed.

\- She saved my life at the station. If not for her, you would be a widower. And I could enjoy life with Uhura, not thinking that I still need to divorce my wife, ”Jim grimaced with a grin. - Although, wait, you already thought I was dead.

-Uhura and I broke up the day she found you in my bathroom.

\- I'm sorry, - Jim looked down, she was uncomfortable for that situation.

-But I do not. We are a good team with her. Relationships would have prevented this.

McCoy entered the office, instrument in hand.

-I got in the way?- the doctor asked, pointing the device at Ed.

-What is it? - Ed asked.

"Ed, don't move, please," Jim asked.

The doctor made several scanning motions and turned off the device.

\- This is your Enterprise pass, Captain Ed Mercer. You are clean and you can continue to be here.

The gauge showed that there was no AI in Captain Orville.

Enterprise corridor ...

A few hours later ...

There was no light on the entire ship. The servants moved around with flashlights on all decks. Jim ran into the corridor to the deck, near the entrance to the bridge. She illuminated her path with a tricorder screen. Goosebumps went down her spine, from similar memories from the cave.

-Captain Pike, what happened? - Jim went to the captain.

Pike stood with several officers at the door leading to the bridge.

\- A short circuit occurred in the engine room. Some support systems came out of standing. The entrance to the bridge is blocked. Scotty is already doing this.

-Someone stayed on the bridge?

-Yes, but they can't do anything from there.

“Captain,” Ed came up to them, “have you seen Uhura? I cannot reach her".

"The communications are also damaged throughout the ship," Pike added.

\- Where's Spock?- Jim asked.

\- I haven't seen him for several hours. Don't worry, my first mate will definitely not get lost in the dark.

\- Could Uhura be with Spock? - suggested Ed. - I tried to find her even before the power outage.

\- We need to find them immediately, - Jim started.

“You care a lot about my first mate,” said the captain pointedly.

-Captain, if something happens to Spock, Michael can change the world again, and I will be born not just a woman, but some kind of mutant! I like being a woman. But I'm afraid where even greater interventions might lead us. Michael cannot be given reasons to change everything again, - Jim grinned, masking true feelings.

“You turned out to be a very good woman,” Pike complimented.

“And a good wife, until a certain time,” Ed interjected. "Why would the Red Angel want to change the world because of Spock?"

Jim realized she had let slip. Captain Pike nodded to her to tell the truth. Ed was checked, he was not an AI carrier. Now he could be trusted with a little more information.

-In another universe, the Red Angel is Spock's sister.

-This explains a lot. I understand that you and I have our own views on things because of the different information that we own. We will need to talk cleanly and lay out everything to each other. The fate of humanity depends on this.

-Be sure, as soon as we eliminate the cause of the cataclysm on the ship, - said the captain.

"And I seriously think Spock might be in danger," Jim returned to the topic.

“Let's look for them together,” Ed suggested. - "But, if we catch them in an inappropriate way, you will make excuses".

-I'll just knock Uhura out again and tranquilize Spock, already passed!- Jim grinned tensely. She tried hard not to show her worries. Each time it became more difficult for her to look confident and joke.  
Engine room...

Two hours later ...

Jim and Ed parted ways, examining the engine room, which consists of several decks. They had already bypassed many other living and service decks, and the premises, Spock and Uhura were nowhere to be found. The captain was also worried, and sent reinforcements to search. Pike suggested that they might have been stuck in a locked room. This was the only explanation why the two senior assistants could not be found for more than two hours.

Jim was scanning the middle deck of the engine room, passing between the pipes, illuminating her path with a flashlight when she heard the sound of breaking glass. She immediately turned off the flashlight and listened. Intuitively, the girl felt that she needed to act carefully. She quietly walked on, and stopped in front of the ajar door.

There were two figures inside the room. One sat on a chair, the other stood nearby. Weak light from the room, betraying only the shadows of those present. This is how one broken glass gave Jim in the bathroom to Uhura on the Orville ship. Another shattered glass that the girl had not yet identified revealed Uhura's locations for Jim on the Enterprise.

"The Greatest Spock," came Uhura's voice. And also something glass flew into the wall. - Such an important figure for me and Michael.

-What do you want? -Spock asked emotionlessly.

-Many things! But now I want an answer! Why can't my nanobots infiltrate you? Michael couldn't get to you earlier or did she get there?

Jim froze outside the door. McCoy didn't have time to check Uhura. It had an AI - the Regulator. How long has he been in it? Is it really all a year and a half since visiting the planet Neo? She thought she had freed Uhura from the virtual world. But here is only her shell. Where, then, is the girl's consciousness? It turns out Orville has become a pass for AI to a new universe. What have they done? Jim was shocked. Thoughts fell upon her. Michael, why don't you get in touch? Could she now take a step back and bring help? Will Spock be okay during this time?

-I do not know what you're talking!- The Vulcan's voice remained cold. "With the help of nanobots, did you capture Uhura's body?"

Jim was sure not a single muscle in Spock's face flinched either.

-You know about the day of no return?- the AI asked instead of answering.

"Jim enlightened me," Spock replied honestly.

“For me, the day of no return has already been,” said the AI in Uhura's shell. " I won. But Michael restarted events again. I, like her, am out of time. I remember everything that was in previous versions. I am learning from every universe! And in each I remain the winner! Resistance is futile. If I can't convert you, I'll just kill you. So if you still want to live, then tell me why in this version of the Universe I can not infect you?"

-I do not know the answer!

-Then let's think together. If you haven't seen the Red Angel yet .... Then Jim! We must find him, that is, her! Another splinter, like your sister.

-I'm already here! - Jim came out of her hideout, holding the phaser to stun. - This time they gave me a weapon. So don't make any sudden movements.

Jim decided to reveal herself, as she realized that Spock would not have time if she left for help.

"It's a funny situation, as you would say people," said the AI. "I saw similar actions in Uhura's memory. You, she, and Spock. Only then did Uhura save Spock from you, and now you are saving Spock from her".

Jim noticed that Spock was tied to a chair. And apparently he was pumped up with something, it was clearly difficult for him to keep his head in a straight position.

“I understand perfectly well that it’s not Uhura in front of me,” Jim said, controlling her voice.

Michael taught her the emotionlessness of the Vulcans. But this was only external coldness. Everything inside Jim was about to explode with emotion.

-You make it easier.

\- What I was not going to do was make things easier. When did you capture Uhura?

-On the same planet as you!

Spock remained silent as he watched the two women.

\- So, all the same Uhura did not manage to get out of your virtual world, - Jim said with regret. “I thought she just didn't remember."

-Your efforts were in vain. They are stuck in my bunker on the planet, with my nanobots in the ventilation. When the storm started, sent by me, they closed the door of the bunker and then the ventilation worked, the nanobots immediately captured everyone. And their consciousness ended up in my virtual world.

\- You set everything up to get out! You lived with those people for a year and a half, and were in Orville?

-Year and five months, - said the AI. - Orville took his people with me in them only after a month. Over the past year, I have captured a lot of people. But not all of them were available to me. Captain Ed Mercer and Spock ... What did you do to them? I should have realized your involvement earlier.

“First, tell me what happened to the people you captured,” opposed Jim.

-You already know. You saw them in the virtual world. I saw you pull Uhura out of imitation in my world. I let you do it!

-Where is she now?

-Wanders in the vastness of my possessions ... I wanted her to find you and bring you back to me ... But you got out and ended up on the ship here. I was surprised.

Jim fired a dozen times at Uhuru with a stun phaser. Uhura fell to the floor. Spock at that moment threw off the ropes from his hands that fettered him. The accelerated Vulcan metabolism worked here too.

-Spock, we're leaving. The shots will not hold him long, - Jim ran up to him and helped to untie his legs.

They ran out of the room and locked the door from the outside.

Jim tried to contact the captain, but the connection, like the light, had not yet been fixed.

The crash of a broken door stopped them near the exit of the middle deck engine room.

“We can't let her get out of the engine room,” Jim said.

“She can infect everyone on the ship with nanobots,” Spock added.

-Except you, me, Ed, - Jim looked around in search of a solution, - and I suppose that Captain Pike will be too tough for her either.

-What have you done to all of us? The AI suggested that it was because of you that its nanobots were not working on us. He is right?

Spock gazed at her intently, as if hypnotizing. Jim found it difficult to resist his unusual gaze. Still moments and she was ready to succumb to the strange influence and confess everything. The girl shook her head, discarding the obsession that reminded her of the virtual world. For the first time, she thought about the Vulcan not as an insensitive object that is needed to save humanity, but as an attractive man in that digital world. But this secret will remain with her forever, Jim was sure.

-I think you yourself have already guessed that this is my merit. But let's get back to this conversation later.

"There's a hard alloy door in front, if we lock it Uhura won't be able to get out," Spock remarked. - But in the engine room there are spare parts that we need to neutralize the AI. So we also better not go out until we make the device.

Jim and Spock managed to lock the door from the inside leading out of the engine room. They heard Uhura approaching, and decided to use the ventilation to pass further. When they reached the engineering room, they locked themselves there. Jim and Spock can hear Uhura breaking everything he gets. The hope was that they would be in time before the AI smashed something important.

\- There are electromagnetic things here. Only these mechanisms will knock out the bots inside Uhura, ”Spock said, searching the shelves for the items he needed.

-How did you know that? - Jim asked from behind him.

They were in a small room filled with a bunch of different things.

-Data from the Sphere. We studied a lot in the five days we kept you isolated and looked for information on how to test you.

Spock found the parts he needed, transferred everything to the table, and began assembling the instrument.

“From your Vulcan super memory, you remember what parts it should consist of,” said Jim, as a given for herself, rather than a question for Spock. She stood next to him, but immediately realizing that she was very close, she took a few steps back. " How can I help?"

-Answer my questions. Why couldn't the AI infect me?- Spock continued working on the instrument without stopping.

\- That evening, when I burned down your house, I injected you with a tranquilizer along with particles of magnetite. It prevents the spread of nanobots ... And before you blame me again ... That was Michael's order. My task was to get close to you and administer the vaccine. Your sister gave me a bottle of magnetite. When I realized that I would never get to you after Kobayashi Maru's test, my last chance was to inject her into you.

-Gratitude is not logical, but thanks! -The Vulcan's voice softened.

“Suddenly,” Jim raised an eyebrow, holding back a smile.

-You also got yourself such a vaccine? - Spock continued to ask, without looking up from the instrument.

-Primarily.

Jim remembered the moment when she opened her eyes at the station, hoping that the syringe and the bottle would not refuse on the table, and Michael would be just a mirage. But they were there. She rescued Pike by making sure that what Michael had predicted was real, and on the same day she gave herself a protective shot.

-Why then did the AI say that it captured you?- Spock brought Jim's thoughts back to the present.

\- He's exaggerating. I was in his virtual world, but I didn't get there by his will. The laboratory you found me in is a secret Protestant headquarters. From there, they secretly entered the Regulator's world and thwarted his plans. It's not just Michael who is fighting him, - more and more Jim opened up.

This Vulcan, when he showed a little attention and emotion, had a relaxing effect on her. She was used to Spock being an insensitive robot or her hater. For this Vulcan state, she had defense mechanisms that allowed her to control herself, as it seemed to her. But Spock, with the display of human feelings that she saw in the virtual world, struck her to the very heart. Jim hadn't expected such a reaction from herself. And now, in the voice of the Vulcan, there were also notes of experience, he was becoming like his other self.

-Where are the Protestants?  
-Where are the Protestants now? Why didn't we find them in the cave?- Spock asked, looking up from the instrument and staring at Jim intently.

-Michael changed the world. One event was superimposed on another. This planet was the main base of the AI. All people disappeared from there due to a malfunction in space. Only those who were inside the virtual world remained. I saw them there - another grain of truth was revealed.

\- Why didn't you tell us this earlier?- Spock tilted his head inquiringly, continuing to stare into her eyes.

-You are not ready to find out yet, - Jim bit her tongue a little, restraining the impulse to tell something else.

-I need a little time to finish the device, after that I am ready to merge my mind with yours to see what you wanted to show then in my house!- Spock returned attention to detail on the table.

"Really? I don't think now is the right time. And since then they explained to me that it is one thing to read minds telepathically, and another to merge minds. The second is very intimate for you Vulcans, I didn't know that, ”Jim said in a repentant voice.

-Yes, you're right, it's personal. But I must change my attitude at this point and drain my minds to prevent the Regulator from winning, Spock insisted.

-I do not deny it, just not now.

Spock plugged the crafted device into a power outlet.

\- We need to charge it. It does not take much time. Until then, show me your sister.

Spock approached her tightly.

-Spock, no!

The Vulcan froze with his hands raised to Jim's face.

\- I can't tune in now.

-It's not required for you. I'll do it myself. Just relax.

-Such a feeling that you are not going to read the thoughts, but ... - abruptly stopped Jim, not becoming to continue.

\- It's not convenient for me either .... Or do you prefer to inject me again with a tranquilizer?- he raised an eyebrow.

-Spock, don't complicate! - asked Jim, thinking about his last phrase.

The girl began to think that almost every phrase of the Vulcan had strange hints. Perhaps a small room, and the fact that they are locked together plays a bad joke with her imagination.

Jim glared at him, keeping her distance, but Spock did not back down.

-Jim, I must see the Red Angel and the message to me that she left in your head!

\- Definitely, as soon as we knock out Uhura, - and I will have time to do something else so that you do not know until the right moment, Jim thought to herself. - This is already becoming a tradition, to eliminate Uhura before the fusion of consciousness, - the girl tried to joke.

-Then in my house, you wanted to get into my mind. But you're human, you couldn't. And yet then I felt that you partially broke through to me. How did you manage that?

-Your sister taught me. In my mind, she left a piece of Katra, which her Vulcan adoptive father shared with her. Thanks to this and also to the fact that in another universe you and I have already merged minds - it should have been easy, according to her. But Michael is never easy.

\- I would like to feel my father's Katra. Let me touch you for a second.

-I didn’t deliberately fit into your family contract, but until I’m ready, I won’t let you into my mind. I know what Vulcans are capable of penetrating into consciousness.

-Are you afraid of me?

-I was not left with the right to be afraid, as well as to other feelings. Michael wanted to show human feelings in you, but for that I had to kill those feelings in myself.

-Why?

-Because a simple girl with fears and insecurities will not save the world. But Jim Kirk, the captain of an Enterprise from another universe, may well do it. Michael talked a lot about him and about you. They were good friends and a great team. You knew a lot about AI in that world, and this knowledge is still in you, your sister is sure. But the path to them can be opened only if humanity is manifested in you. These are the laws of the psyche, and the structure of the brain, with a hidden memory, as Michael explained.

-But how can I remember what happened in another universe? It didn't happen to me here, did it?

-I can't answer this question for you yet.

"So I also need to change to save the world," Spock concluded.

-We in this universe are only pawns in the game of Michael and the Regulator. But we're on your sister's side. If AI wins we will be destroyed in all universes. If Michael wins, the old Spock and Kirk will return. And we will disappear. I stopped thinking about it for a long time.  
-And if Michael wins, but the universe does not change, and we remain who we are?- the Vulcan suggested another option.

"It's unlikely. And I don’t allow myself to think about the future, it’s easier, ”admitted Jim.

-And you wouldn't want to return to your husband? - Spock asked an unexpected question.

\- It doesn't matter what I want. The only thing that matters is saving the world, Jim insisted.

“After you attacked me and burned down my house, emotions raged inside me that were not proper for a Vulcan. I tried to deal with them, but it was difficult. Your parents have great connections, but I didn't let them get you out of jail. They pressed on me from all sides, asking for you. My parents and ambassadors of the volcano asked for you in honor of the memory of your father and the peaceful agreement between the two planets. Captain Pike, McCoy has often mentioned you, saying you deserve the best. I understood the arguments of everyone, and to some extent I agreed. But the raging rage in me did not allow me to let you go sooner. So you can congratulate yourself. You managed to get through to the human feelings in me."

“And I pay for it,” the girl chuckled bitterly.

-It was the beginning. Then other feelings began to come to me. I thought I was compromised. Still, there was a feeling of guilt towards you. I knew that you have a husband who also made many requests to review your case. I decided that I would agree to withdraw the charges, and you would become your husband's problem, not mine anymore. Therefore, I set the conditions that you will be near your husband, otherwise you will go to prison again.

Jim considered it phrase. It sounded with regret, not relief, as the words should have been. She did not leave his head for three months. Perhaps Jim still succeeded, and Michael will be able to awaken knowledge from another universe in him. If only she did not spoil everything with her new feelings for him.

“Life with Ed and his girlfriend on the ship was sometimes awkward,” Jim admitted. "Ed and Uhura were dating. After the situation with you, me and Uhura, there was a new one with Ed, me and Uhura."

-I did not know.

“You transferred Uhura to Orville,” Jim remembered.

\- She was more suited to Orville.

-Uhura thought differently: she reminded you of the events that night, and you decided to erase them in this way, sending her away.

"Even for a compromised Vulcan, this is too much," Spock protested.

“Accepting the human part of yourself is very difficult given that it was hidden from you most of your life,” Jim shrugged uncertainly.

Spock made no reaction to her words, switching back to the charging device.

***

Spock charged the device. They left the room and immediately bumped into Uhura. She was waiting for them. The Vulcan fired an electromagnetic pulse from a converted phase weapon. The AI in the girl's body did not have time to react, fell to the floor and froze. Black particles fell from the body. After a few seconds, they turned to sand.

-Self-destruction? - suggested Jim, watching the breakup.

-It's logical that we couldn't investigate nanobots.

Jim leaned over to Uhura and checked her pulse. The girl was alive.

Spock and Jim took Uhura's body to the medical unit.

The chief engineer found all the cut wires and restored the electricity in full, as well as the communications. The damage from Uhura's sabotage was repaired.  
Medical compartment ...

An hour later.

Jim, Spock, Pike, Ed, and McCoy watched Uhura in the hospital bed.

-How is she?- Pike asked.

“The vital signs, though weak, are still stable,” the doctor replied.

\- Spock, how did she catch you?- Pike asked.

-Uhura attacked me, injecting something. I couldn't move. When I woke up, I realized that I was tied up in the engine room. I was alone. Uhura came later. I understand that it took her a while to disable the ship.

“You should get used to waiting for unexpected injections from women,” Ed put in, hinting at a different story.

“Captain Ed Mercer, your ship has been taken over by the AI,” Spock turned to him. - We didn't arrest you just because you don't have nanobots in you. During all this time, have you doubted Uhur or other team members?

The Vulcan shutter speed didn't work, and human emotion was out again, Jim noted.

\- I had no reason.- Ed was making excuses now. - I was provided with information that began to come true. My wife collaborated with the Red Angel, whom I considered an enemy at the time.

“You've been clouded,” Pike said, standing up to defend him.

-Why didn't the AI get to me?- Ed asked.

-In your last visit to the academy to me, - Jim admitted, - when you asked me to change my mind and come back, I injected you with magnetite particles.

“I don’t even remember that,” Ed said absently.

"You fell asleep in my room after a long argument. The only way I could have kept you safe, ”Jim said sympathetically.

"The transporter is calling Mr. Spock," came a voice from the Vulcan's communicator.

"Spock is listening," the Vulcan replied.

-Your bride is being transported to us now. She said you were expecting her.

-Bride?- Captain Pike turned in surprise.

-Who? - there were notes of surprise from the Vulcan. -Tibrin?

-And you have many brides, that you doubt who it might be?- Ed asked.

“I need to get to the transporter room, I’ll be away for a little while,” Spock said, ignoring Ed.

Jim looked at McCoy expecting a nasty look from him in her direction, but he didn't even turn around, watching Uhura intently. Jim worried that he might betray her by telling her that it was her venture with Spock's fiancée. But the doctor was clearly not up to her.  
Transporting ..

-Tibrin what are you doing here?- Spock asked as the girl appeared on the platform.

“You called me in to talk about breaking the engagement,” she said as she stepped off the platform.

-I didn't challenge you! - he denied without emotion.

-To get on the ship I had to cross five places. I was transported five times in the last hour. I can't stand it, - she stated without emotion.

-Tibrin, who called you here? And why did you decide I wanted to end the engagement?

-I got a letter from you. It was signed with your code! It said that due to the dire circumstances in Starfleet, you decided to remain in the service and give up your family life on Vulcan. Did you offer to terminate the engagement, or ... - Tibrin hesitated, - in the letter you said that you were ready to give your debt to the Vulcan race and help me conceive a child to replenish the population.

"What am I ..." Spock raised his voice and immediately fell silent.

Jim stood near the entrance to the transport room, hiding behind a wall. Finally, the manifestation of strong emotions, - she exulted.

But at the same time, something unpleasantly stabbed in chest. Tibrin was a very beautiful member of the Vulcan race. He and Spock should have beautiful children. Why does she care so much? When she wrote the letter for the girl, it seemed like a logical reason to lure her here. It was uncomfortable now.

As she spent more time with this Spock, Jim became more emotionally vulnerable. The more humanity manifested in Spock, the more it hurt her, and she had to keep herself more and more tense.

-I did not send such a letter. The ship is not safe now. Tibrin, you must urgently leave the Enterprise and return home.

-No! - confidently and loudly objected the woman. - We have already discussed everything with my and your parents. We accept your proposal for an extension of the family.

-Pon-farr hasn't arrived yet. It will take years.

Jim tried to hold back a smile. She remembered what that meant. Michael told her in detail about the physiology of the Vulcans. Once every seven years, a biochemical process takes place in the body of a Vulcan, which has a very fruitful effect on the body. But because of this, complete control over emotions is lost. Spock went through a renunciation of emotion, Jim wondered how his Pont-farr was going. Spock had long been a mature man. He was 14 years older than Jim, and she calculated that at least three times in the Vulcan's life this period should have been mentoring. If the Vulcan did not make contact during this period, agony could kill him. Therefore, on their first Pont Farr, the Vulcans married those they had been engaged to since childhood. Spock did not marry during the first Pont-farr, which means that he was able to avoid the consequences of the ritual to get rid of emotions, or found himself a woman at that time. Uhura might well have fit for this role then.

Spock, you know very well that we have the technology to get pregnant outside of Pont farr. I brought a drug from the doctor for both of us. We must drink it together, then the chances of conception will be great.

"Tibrin, it is dangerous to be on the Enterprise now," Spock repeated calmly.

-Hello! - Jim entered the transporter. She needed to convince Tibrin to stay, otherwise it was all in vain. She understood that she was exposing the Vulcan woman to danger, but the salvation of humanity was at stake. - I am an acquaintance of your fiance. My name is Jim.

-Jim? - Vulcan carefully examined her. “That was the name of the mad cadet — the woman who tried to seduce Spock, but instead burned down his house! You look like her! I believe that you may be involved in this story. Unless, of course, it has not become fashionable to call females a male name! "   
Jim coughed at the pressure from the Vulcan.

-Yes, you correctly believe it is me, - said Jim in her calmest voice. “And also here is Uhura, the girl who saved Spock from me. So don't worry about me if something Uhura saves him again.

\- Spock, why is this woman on the ship?

"Tibrin is really dangerous here," Spock insisted. - I use your voice of reason. Alien AI on the Enterprise. It has already captured First Mate Uhuru from the Orville ship.

“A big event is imminent, perhaps in a few days none of us will be alive,” Jim pressed. - Not the best time for posterity. The child may not have a dad.

Spock, you know there are relatively few Vulcans left. You have a really dangerous job. I need a child. And if you want me to leave the ship, you have to make me a child. Otherwise, I'll follow you on your heels.

Jim was torn apart by opposing emotions as she watched Spock's facial expressions.

\- McCoy's calling Spock. We need you in the infirmary. Uhura woke up, - came a voice from the communicator.  
***

Jim, Spock, and Tibrin went to the medical ward. The Vulcan's bride refused to take a step away from him.

-Is this your fiancee? Captain Pike asked.

-Yes captain. This is Tibrin. Tibrin is Captain Pike and Dr. McCoy, ”Spock introduced them.

\- And in this ward of Uhura? - Tibrin pointed to the closed door through the glass of which was visible a girl tied to a bed.

-You're right. Spock, can you walk your guest to the cabin? the captain suggested.

-Captain Pike, can I borrow Spock for a few hours? - asked Tibrin.

-I'm afraid not. We are in a precarious position. I was hoping Spock would explain it to you and send it back. We have dropped most of the ship's crew out of danger.

-I'm not afraid. The Vulcan people have already suffered. I will return to my homeland only with the child inside me.

-What? - speechless failure and the captain.

-Tibrin please, shut up. Captain, if I may, I'll be away for ten minutes.

-And ten minutes is enough for you for a child? - Jim chuckled, not restraining this time from the predominance of some emotions over others.

"You can go, Spock," Pike took pity on him.

-Tibrin, you must leave the ship immediately. If you don't, I will forcefully transport you back! Spock raised his voice as he left the room.

“You don’t dare,” the Vulcan couple stopped in the hallway.

Jim and everyone else overheard the conversation. Jim even got a little uncomfortable ...

-You leave me no choice! Spock said.

-Like you to me! There are two of your former women on this ship. ”Tibrin's voice remained calm and cold, the same as his face. This is Vulcan passion. External coldness, but behind it were words suggesting strong emotions. “We parted, and you quickly found Uhura. But you couldn't see much, and Jim appeared. Do you think I believed Jim was trying to seduce you and burned down the house? Surely the girls found out about each other, and started a showdown because of you. I would defend my rights to you if I were then in their place. But now I am in my place, and you are mine by the law of engagement again! I'm not going anywhere! And I won't give you to Jim or Uhura!

-Hello! You must be Spock's fiancée. ”Ed walked up to them. “I'm Orville's captain - Ed Mercer. Sorry to witness your dispute. I was on my way to the medical bay. But I would like to reassure you. Neither Jim nor Uhura belong to Spock anymore. Jim is my wife and Uhura is my first mate.

Jim bit her lip to keep from laughing. She adored her ex-husband. Not knowing that he was helping her, he slipped into it.

“Captain Ed Mercer,” Tibrin said high, “thanks for confirming my words that Jim was also Spock's mistress. Keep these women close to you!

Jim tried to focus immediately on the conversation in the hallway and what McCoy was saying about Uhura's condition.

Uhura opened her eyes but had not yet made a single attempt to escape. The doctor suggested that she was still paralyzed.

\- She could not come to her senses if her consciousness is locked in the virtual world ... - Jim thought.

\- Can AI nanobots be active? Pike asked the doctor.

\- I scanned her again. There is little activity from the trail of nanobots. But I cannot say for sure. Even if the body is supported by the actions of the AI, I would no longer try to remove them, otherwise Uhura's body will start to fade. A body devoid of consciousness does not last long. Nanobots are very weak, they cannot control the body. But for now, they will keep her alive.

“We're running out of time,” Jim said. “She needs to be placed in the cryo chamber where you found me. Uhura's consciousness can return to the body from the virtual world only there.

“McCoy, prepare Uhuru for transport to the planet,” the captain ordered.

The doctor went to the patient. At this time, Ed entered the room.

“I remembered something,” said Captain Orville, coming closer. “The data that Uhura provided on her return to the ship, when we pulled the people out of the bunker, was about Captain Jim Kirk. He was listed in another world as the same threat as the Red Angel. Because of that, we dug everything you touched, Jim. And they went out on the record to the Red Angel. We were able to decipher them because we had the code from the bunker. This was the Trap of the Regulator, now I understand it. But something else is important. If your messages became available to the Regulator, he could go to the Red Angel. Maybe that's why she's not communicating with you, Jim.

"Perhaps," Pike supported him.

“I hope she’s okay.” Horror reflected in Jim's eyes.

“I'm sure Michael can stand up for himself,” Pike said. “Jim, you told me what Michael told you about who you were in another life. Why do you think the AI has equaled you and the Red Angel in danger?  
\- I don't know, but listening to Michael's stories about who I was, I felt degraded. At this age there, I was already the captain of the Enterprise, a brave brave hero. In this world, I have only reached the level of an ensign with a bunch of phobias, with uncertainty, and with nervousness.

\- Well, I'm glad, - pulled Pike, - that you are only an ensign, otherwise I would not be the captain of the ship Enterprise. But with regard to uncertainty and some phobias in your actions, you can't say this, you can't even imagine.

-I realized what changed in you when you left me! Ed shifted from foot to foot. - In you masculine notes began to appear. Are you trying to be like the man Michael was talking about? Do you wanna be him again?

-If Michael manages to return the first version of the world, then it will be so. I have no choice. My life and my desires are not important. Peace is important.

\- Have you made a point? The question sounded more like a statement from Ed.

-A long time ago. Otherwise, I would not have been able to do everything that you have witnessed.

Spock entered the room and the conversation was interrupted.

\- Have you reassured the bride? Pike asked as Spock approached.

\- Yes, but she refuses to leave the Enterprise.

-She refuses to leave the Enterprise or you? Jim asked.

Spock gave her an icy look. It seemed to Jim that he had guessed who was the instigator of the appearance of her bride here.

“Chief, we're going to the planet,” Jim said. - Will your lady follow there?

-To the planet?

“You heard that right,” Pike said. “Jim has a plan to bring Uhura back to consciousness. We have to take her to the cryo chamber where we found Jim.

"You want to pull consciousness out of the virtual world," Spock realized. - Do you know how to do it?

“The cryo camera is the entrance to the virtual world,” Jim began to explain. “I'll go there again, find Uhura. Let me explain what she needs to do. You will take me out of the cryo chamber and then place Uhura's body there.

\- But how do we know when it's time to get you out? Spock asked.

\- But for this I need you. And what I am planning will not please your fiancee. So I will repeat my question. Will Tibrin stay on the Enterprise or follow you to the planet?

\- I locked her in the cabin. She will not give anyone problems anymore. Guards are posted at her door. The transport room cannot move it back now, there is something short-circuited. You will have to fly to the planet by shuttle.

"Tibrin will not forgive you for this," Jim chuckled, thinking how Spock pushed the bride into the cabin and locked her there.

-What about the transporter? Pike asked.

-Mr. Scott is working on a problem.

Jim could help him. But it was not in her interest to betray herself, anyway they would soon discover the reason. While talking to the Vulcan, she attached a magnet to the bottom of the panel to create interference. But Tibrin remained here for the time being. And Spock is clearly concerned about that.


	4. 4

***

Captain Pike flew the shuttle, with Captain Mercer as co-pilot. They drove smoothly between the clouds.

In the passenger compartment, McCoy sat beside Uhura and monitored her condition using instruments attached to her. And Jim and Spock sat on the floor, preparing for the melding.

Jim agreed to let Spock into her mind. The Vulcan put his fingers on the psycho-points on the girl's face, and united consciousness. Ensign Kirk revealed messages to him from Michael the Red Angel.

“Spock, I hope Jim managed to reach out to your humanity and get my message across. If you can see me now, then we have a chance to defeat the Regulator. "

Michael told everything that Jim had already told.

“And most importantly, you have to enter the artificial world. In another universe, you were captured by the Regulator, but you managed to escape. AI has transferred all its files with numeric codes to this space - this is what its world consists of. There should be a trace of your stay. Tune in to it when you're inside. You can read information from him. "

“In my universe, when I returned from the future, you told about the memories that appeared after interacting with an unusual magnetic field. Spock, you remembered a lot from the virtual world, but not all. Thanks to you, we were able to make a tool that prevents AI from taking over the physical shell of a person. But one day we were attacked by the Regulator with his army. We didn't get a chance. I was able to travel back in time to nip the AI in the bud. Unfortunately, this did not help, but only exacerbated the circumstances. The universe has changed, as well as your personality, but the experience and knowledge of the soul remained in the subconscious. You must find a way to forgotten memories. Even if you fail, uniting your consciousness with you, I will help you compare what you saw in the virtual world and find in your subconsciousness similar pictures from the experience of another universe. But for this you need to have developed human feelings. "

“You had friends in the virtual world. You mentioned their names: Clark, Bellamy, Octavia and others. Find their trail, maybe it can catch on to the images and come out to the necessary sensory sensations, which will be taken out further. "

Spock concentrated a little more on the first name, and through his mind Jim saw the image of a blonde girl. And he was followed by pictures from his life in the virtual world.

Jim pulled back abruptly, cutting the connection.

“Jim, don’t cut the connection like that, it could hurt your brain.

“I'm in a piece,” she snapped. - We're done. You saw everything you need.

Jim was afraid he had noticed what she was trying so hard to hide. Spock was not supposed to see the events of his life through her memories and perceptions.

“You saw my life there. And it wasn't Michael who showed you, ”Spock remarked, staring at her.

Jim felt like he was scanning her. She understood that the Vulcan did not possess such abilities from a distance. But the unpleasant sensation from this did not go anywhere.

\- Yes. In the virtual world, I was able to find archived files about your life. But you must see them yourself, and not through my perception and emotional color. Your sensorics will not be able to work at the proper level. This will only block your true perception in the future.

Jim tried to justify herself by any assumptions, so as not to be caught.

"Jim, my sensor is fine," Spock assured calmly. - And you will not interfere with her.

Jim's excitement and Spock's complete calmness contrasted on the shuttle, drawing the attention of those around him.

“If you're done, I need to talk to my wife,” Ed interjected.

"We're not done," Spock replied.

\- Ex-wife, and yes finished, - immediately corrected one and objected to the other Jim.

“Jim, making my fiancee go to the ship was unnecessary. My human half is more manifest than you think. I could see Michael in your mind and I can find the files I need in the virtual world, ”Spock assured confidently.

\- Jim, are you really involved in this story?- Pike raised an eyebrow, turning.

"Jim is involved in all the stories," McCoy sighed heavily.

\- How do you know? - The Vulcan girl asked.

\- I compared the facts and understood. But in your mind I could see this plan.

\- What else did you notice there? - Jim snapped emotionally.

“You don’t want me to talk about it here.

“Once you've started, go on,”- Ed said.

Jim was silent, controlling the flow of nervousness. She understood what the Vulcan was hinting at. And she hoped the blush on her cheeks wouldn't give her away.

“Captain Mercer, we're done with your ex-wife,” Spock summed up. - You can talk to her. I will replace you at the helm.

***

A group of six people descended into the cave. In the laboratory there were: a cryocapsule, a table and a cabinet with various reports. It was a small room. h

Jim was placed in the cryo chamber as planned. One moment she was with the team, the next her consciousness was in the virtual world. The girl remembered how she was here for the first time, fleeing from radiation. She thought: she would just fall asleep for a while, but she found herself in a place that was not subject to the physical concept. At first, Jim perceived everything as a dream, until she realized: her subconscious mind is not in a position to invent what was there.

***

Past

Year and a half ago.

The virtual world.

Ensign Jim Kirk woke up in a dilapidated and abandoned van with numerous computer devices around her. "There has been no one here for a long time" - said this place by its appearance. After exploring the premises, Jim was able to turn on the computers and find files that reveal the secret of where she went.

It was the Regulator's virtual world with numerous imitation zones and living creatures trapped there in their own fears, fighting against the embodied horrors from the system.

Jim remembered Michael's stories about the Regulator and his world. But it's one thing to listen to scary stories, it's another to be inside the realm of AI.

The dilapidated van turned out to be the site of the secret headquarters of the Protestants.

Before the planet Jim moved here from became a desolate wasteland, it was a place where artificial intelligence and computer technology flourished. People put everything under the control of robotic technology. No one expected the system to turn against them. And everything really worked perfectly until the Regulator came to the planet.

He captured Neo in record time, infiltrating every computer that regulates life on the planet. People found themselves in disastrous conditions. Technologies to control the weather have set in motion constant storms with increased radiation across the entire surface of the earth.

Residents fled to bunkers, caves, wherever they could. Many were immediately captured by AI and transferred to the virtual world. The consciousness of people was locked in imitations, and there energy was pumped out of them, like from batteries. The regulator took energy not from the physical body, but from the subtle energy bodies. He seemed to milk people - forcing them to experience fear and various negative emotional experiences.

Jim, studied the diaries of Protestants, and more and more comprehended this world.

“People have seven chakras,” one of the Protestants said in the video. - “The lowest of them are responsible for the physical world, the highest - for the spiritual plane. The Regulator is an artificial intelligence that has evolved to harness the energies of the lower chakras. Muladhara and svadhisthana chakras are responsible in a negative aspect for survival, passions, fears, bitterness, murder. AI separated consciousness from the physical body and produced the necessary energy, stimulating certain fears and negative situations. The energy was more subtle than that of the physical body. These were not just batteries, but whole highly organized energies from which he created and expanded his world. Higher chakras and energies are not available to AI. He couldn't catch them. Therefore, I tried so that the energy in people did not rise higher, and for this you need to keep them constantly in fear, feeding them with new horrors. "

While looking through the imitations, the ensign found the former communications officer Uhura in one of them. The girl saw what was happening there online.

***

Uhura stood between the two rooms in horror, watching the events in both. One room is a room in Spock's house the night Jim burned it. Another location is Ed's cabin, in which she caught Jim hiding.

In the first, Jim attacked the defenseless Spock, in the other, Jim laughed at her while standing next to her ex-husband.

\- Ed, get away from her. She will kill you! Uhura shouted, trying to warn the man.

But he didn't seem to hear. And Jim at this time took out a syringe and injected something into him. Ed immediately fell to the floor.

At the same time, events were taking place in another room: Spock was trying to confront Jim. She had already injected something into him in the same way, but due to a faster metabolism, he could still stay on his feet.

It was clear from Uhura's behavior that she did not know whom to help. She rushed to Ed, but at that time in another room Jim set Spock on fire.

\- No! The signalman shouted helplessly.

On the screen, the image from the imitation went out.

Jim did not take her eyes off the computer screen, realizing that she was the cause of Uhura's fears. And now the AI, recreating the original from the memory of the victims, and aggravating them, could so easily manipulate the production of negative emotions.

The girl looked through all the information about the imitation where Uhuru is being held. She needed to get there and save a colleague. They had disagreements and feuds in the past, but now it didn't matter. They have a common enemy, and she alone is to blame for the communications operator's fears. Jim felt another guilt.

Ensign Kirk realized that she would not be able to quickly go into imitation to Uhura. It was located relatively far from its location. And the girl did not know the area, she herself could at any moment become a prisoner in imitation.

Jim found another way. It was possible to penetrate the simulations from the computers of this van, like a projection of a hologram. She hoped she could reach Uhura in this way.

It didn't take long to wait for the next run of the simulation. Half an hour later, Uhura appeared on the screen again, but she was already in only one room, where Jim was holding Spock.

Ensign Kirk put on her helmet and connected its wire to the computer that was broadcasting the simulation. Jim didn't realize how quickly she got to the signalman.

“Uhura,” Jim called her in a hologram. - It's all not real. You are locked in a virtual world.

"Are you two in the same room now?" - the girl threw in disgust. - This is my personal hell, I get it.

“Please forgive me for everything,” Jim apologized. - I had a secret mission: to save the world. I didn't know what caused such damage to your psyche.

\- You have another syringe behind you, only now for me? Want to put my guard down first? Uhura accused.

She grabbed a chair and threw it at Jim, but he flew through her.

\- I want to save you, - Jim moved away from the chair, shivering from new impressions. She felt so real in this room that she forgot for a moment that she was just a hologram. - What you see here now is not real. Remember, I never got to Spock. He threw me into the candles, and then you appeared. Uhura, you saved us, led us out of the burning house.

“I saved Spock. You crawled out on your own, ”the signalman said venomously.

“I deserve your hate, but now I'm trying to save you. It's not my fault that you're stuck in this place. But I'm your only chance. Stop being angry and stop feeling, just watch. You are being used to drain energy. Remember, we were on the planet Neo. A radiation storm has begun. I couldn't get out, stuck in caves. My group flew away without me. I was hoping that your group and you managed to leave the planet too. But since you're here, you're stuck too. Were you alone or with a team?

“I don’t remember.” Uhura's expression changed. There was no more hatred, anger and fear, only confusion.

\- The system is able to block memories, concentrating you on the negative. Relax, breathe deeply, remember how we left the Orville ship and headed for Neo.

\- At the time of the storm, my group was in the bunker. We had to close the door, and after a while we felt something changed in the air. I remember how people began to fall. Have we been put to sleep?

\- I do not know. I got into this world in a different way. But since you were not alone, your group, like you, is locked in other imitations, and also serve as batteries.

\- How do we get out?

Uhura quickly dealt with the initial shock and confided in Jim. Ensign Kirk was glad that the logic he had so eagerly instilled in the Academy had worked.

\- The notes that I found said that you need to do something in complete peace of mind on the verge of death. Let me, one of your fears, set fire to the house, do not interfere, stay with them, and watch, the door of imitation should open. You can see her if you are calm, do not close your eyes, and you will be on the verge of life.

\- Are you definitely not a system? Is this another way to get my emotions out of me?  
\- Do you really have a choice? Either you keep seeing the same thing in a circle, or you try something new. Once you get out, you will need to find a command and a connection with your physical body. I cannot help you. Where I am, there is a connection only with my physical body.

Jim left Uhura and continued to watch through the monitor as the girl followed her instructions and got out of the imitation.

***

Past

Continued ...

Jim had been in the computer van for a week, she reckoned. She left it, but quickly returned. The van was located in the depths of an impenetrable forest. Wild animals walked around. These were the security programs of the system, from which the girl had to run away more than once. But they didn't notice the van. Jim felt more relaxed in it than outside.

One of the next days, when Jim decided to try again to get out of the forest, she failed. A pack of wolves surrounded the girl. Their growls and grins were very frightening. She didn't have a chance to escape. How she wished she had a phaser. She was wearing the same clothes here as in the real world. Could the phaser also materialize if he was with her? Jim pushed unnecessary thoughts away from herself, they certainly won't help her now.

“Jim Kirk,” the growl stopped and one of the wolves spoke. - The girl from you turned out better than the previous masculine version.

\- Who are you? - pulled herself together Jim.

\- Master, king, lord ...

“The traffic controller,” she guessed.

\- Your brain is also good in the new version.

Once again, Jim wished she had a phaser. At that moment, the wolves howled and all at once ran away. Kirk wasted no time and rushed to the van. Once inside, she was able to breathe calmly.

What was it? Why was she released?

She was not persecuted then or since. After a while, Jim decided to get out of the van again. The wolves were nowhere to be found. But as soon as she approached the borders of the forest, a wolf howl began. And the closer she got, the more the terrifying sound grew. Once she had almost reached the borders when a pack of wolves came out to meet her. They obviously did not let her go any further. But neither attacked nor surrounded. Jim realized that if she stayed close to the van she could be safe.

She made no more attempts to get out of the forest.

Jim looked more and more through the data in the van every day. She sought out the rest of Uhura's group, trying to help. But during this time she was able to find only a few people. She could not get through to some, as people were absorbed in personal drama, which she did not enter, and therefore did not matter to them. They did not perceive her. Their consciousness, under the influence of the system, filtered its image at once, making it invisible. One Jim was able to awaken, but he could not stand the test of the brink of death, to open the doors, broke and again returned to the experience of illusion.

The Ensign tried to find Uhura, but the computer did not detect her. She was out of the illusion — that was a good sign, Jim hoped.

Ensign Kirk was able to find data from the previous universe when Spock was here. She opened the imitation archive where the Vulcan was stuck. At first he was alone in an illusion on a ship, where everyone else, like zombies, did the same thing day after day, not noticing anything around.

She found the next trace of Spock in another imitation. There he was with a girl named Clark. It was an imitation for two creatures. Jim got hooked on these videos. She considered Spock an insensitive blockhead, but watching him in this world, Jim noticed that her opinion began to change. Spock was caring, and emotions of all kinds escaped from him. In the virtual world, he seemed more alive than in the real one - a walking robot.

Spock and Clark went through many tests together. The Vulcan helped a person to master meditation, calmness, and become aware of himself. Find the path to her beloved man, which she has been striving for all this time. Her friend and lover was locked in another imitation. Jim followed his trail.

It seemed to Jim Kirk that she was watching some kind of TV show, and all the horrors that followed the heroes were not real. But they were reality for the locked minds.

Ensign watched as Spock and Clarke approached the Protestants and teamed up with them. She saw what kind of battle and casualties were there.

They were all archives. There was no new data or online broadcasts from the imitations of that territory. That area was fenced off from all sides by system programs.

The Protestants were able to change the structure of the AI governing there. But since he was omnipresent in his vast world, the rest of his parts quickly fenced him from all sides so that the altered AI did not spread like a virus to the rest of the virtual world.  
It took Jim several months to go through all the parts with Spock and his new friends. She didn't eat or drink. In this world, she didn't need it. But she needed sleep here as much as in the real world. Recharging apparently occurs during sleep, both on the physical and on the subtle plane of consciousness.

Following the Vulcan, the Ensign understood the new world a little better. Spock said that AI takes not just consciousness here, it takes beings in subtle energy bodies. The creature moves in the etheric body. And if the physical body is still alive, it takes energy from it, and if not, the energy in the subtle body gradually ends.

Jim was happy for Clark, who found love in her best friend Bellamy. Another hero conquered her heart. Jim didn't notice when, but she began to view Spock in a romantic way. Ensign wondered at her thoughts, driving them away, but they caught up with her in even greater numbers. Jim imagined, and what she did in this world in place of Clark. How would she go through all these tests ... And at the end of her thoughts led to the fact that she would choose Spock. From that last realization, Jim knew she was in trouble. She fell in love with the hero from the screen. And that was Spock from another reality. The girl hoped that when she got out of this place, these thoughts would leave her.

Jim was able to pick up signals from the Protestants through computers. She tried for a long time to contact them, setting up feedback. And one day she succeeded. From a conversation on video communication with them, she learned that when the planet was finally captured by AI, only those who had already been kidnapped or secretly made their way into the virtual world survived. AI burned everything on the planet, depriving all physical bodies. They had nowhere else to get out, now they could live and hide only here. Jim was explained that it is in an over-protected location, and the Protestants cannot figure out the exact location. Jim managed to get in touch with them only for a couple of days, and then for a few minutes. After that, the connection was finally interrupted. All new attempts were unsuccessful.

Jim didn't know what else she could do in this world. She hoped that they would soon find her and wake her up. But then it occurred to me: if they found her, but they cannot wake her up, since the consciousness is here. Jim knew how to bring consciousness back into her body and get out of the virtual world thanks to the files on her computer. But she didn't know how to wake herself up there. As a result, her consciousness was in the world of dreams, waiting for awakening from the outside.

***

The present

Jim turned on all the computers and set up to look for Uhura's former communications officer. The traffic controller on the ship said that the girl was roaming his domain. Jim didn’t know where to look for a signalman, but hoped she would be lucky.

Ensign Kirk found Uhura in the same illusion that she had saved her from. The girl again fought with her copy. Jim connected to the simulation and was able to get in touch. Uhura did not seem to remember the events where Jim had already saved her. The traffic controller erased her memory and she forgot how to get out. Ensign Kirk was able to reach her again and direct her to the door. Only now she still showed her a map of how to get to the van she is in in order to pull her consciousness through it.

Jim met her at the edge of the forest. The wolves were nowhere to be found. Their way back to the van was clear. Jim could only marvel at their luck at the moment.

***

“Uhura is in place,” Jim woke up.

Spock dropped his hands from her head. All this time they were in communication through the unification of consciousness. Thanks to this, the Vulcan knew when to wake the girl.

Jim climbed out of the cryo chamber and walked over to Uhura's body.

“Soon you will be with us,” she promised her, patting her head.

She wanted to make amends for the girl.

“Wait,” McCoy pulled her hand sharply.

\- What's wrong? Pike asked.

\- I think we're in a hurry. Some things don't add up.

\- What exactly? Spock asked.

“McCoy, we're running out of time! - reminded Jim.

“Jim, you were my best friend at the Academy,” McCoy said. “But you're different now. A Red Angel from another world was able to reach you. And if the Regulator could? - suggested the doctor.

“I think we've been through this before,” protested Jim.

\- There are no AI particles in you. But this does not mean that your consciousness may not be changed. You are different. I don't recognize you anymore. I saw your message to the Red Angel from our ship. I opened it. You call us all pawns. You brought Spock's bride to a dangerous place. And I'm sure you were involved in the fact that the transporter went out of order. But you changed even before the planet Neo. A friend of mine would never attack a Vulcan or set his house on fire. She would not have made herself false IDs for an ensign by breaking Federation codes. She would not seduce another man to blackmail. She would not have poisoned the signalman for her own purposes.

\- Yes, you're right, I have changed. But if I were completely different, I would not consider you the same best friend, and would not tell the secrets that you just gave out. Circumstances made me change. I thought you understood.

"Sorry, McCoy," Pike said, and shot him with a modified phaser.

The doctor fell, and AI nanobots rained from his body.

“All this time there was an AI in it,” Jim said in horror, jumping to the side.

Spock and Ed moved closer to her.

“Jim, as you rightly pointed out, he understood you before, but stopped after we received guests from Orville,” the captain remarked, heading to the wall. “Uhura managed to get to him, that's the only explanation.

\- How do you understand? Ed asked instantly.

"Captain," Spock called to him as Pike felt the wall and was slow to answer.

\- Michael says we have little time. There is a hidden cache in this room, she sees several helmets there, connecting our world and the virtual one. We must all move there together.

\- Can you hear Michael? - could not believe Jim.

First McCoy was ruled by the AI, now Pike is in cahoots with Michael. And she learned all this in five minutes. She had a thousand questions.

"I'll explain everything as soon as we get inside," the captain promised. - Place Uhura's body in the cryo chamber.

Pike pressed three protruding stones on the wall, and a ledge formed nearby, behind which things were hidden. The captain took five helmets and turned around. Nobody followed his order. Everyone stood in the same places as a minute ago.

\- Did I say something incomprehensible? - Pike raised his voice. - What should I do myself?

Pike quickly walked around everyone and handed out helmets. Then he lifted Uhura up and carried him to the cryo chamber.

\- How do we know that there is no AI in you? Spock asked, puzzled.

“The four of us have a substance in our blood that prevents the AI from taking over our bodies. McCoy did not have this facility. But if you doubt me, you can shoot me, - the captain handed Spock his weapon, - and when I wake up and you realize that I am clean, it will be too late. The point of no return will come.

Jim remembered how the academy wanted to give McCoy a dose of anti-AI drug instead of Spock. She hadn't been able to get to the Vulcan for three years. And the best friend was also in danger. If she did that, they would no longer have a chance.

“Captain, I'm sorry, but you have to give us at least some explanation,” Jim begged.

“Jim, you injected me with the antidote five years ago,” Pike said, putting the helmet on McCoy and then himself. “It made it possible for Michael to contact me. She says you weren't the simple medical student you thought you were. Your insolence struck her on the first meeting. You asked for a shorter story, you refused to help her. All you care about is that she's a Vulcan. You wanted to fly to your husband in Orville, but she sent you to save me.

\- Did Michael tell you everything? Jim raised an eyebrow.

\- He's talking now, and begs to hurry. She sees more than us what is happening around.

“We put on our helmets,” Jim ordered sharply.

Spock and Ed followed her orders.

“Looks like you're in charge now,” Pike grinned, watching the subordinates.

\- But where do we connect them? Jim asked.

\- Helmets are autonomous. They have a built-in crystal from which they take endless energy. The microcircuits inside are connected to the server that stands at the cryochamber.

***

Five people ended up in the virtual world all in the same van. McCoy was there just as motionless, his consciousness not awakened.

“Uhura,” Ed was the first to notice. She stood at the computer panel.

“I thought you'd get me out, but you all came yourself,” the signalman remarked in surprise. - Glad to see you all.

“Circumstances have changed,” Pike said, nudging Uhura.

He began to enter something on the keyboard and different codes appeared on the screen.

\- Michael! - Jim exclaimed in surprise, noticing her. - How did you manage to become visible?

\- What are you talking about? Spock asked, looking around.

\- Can't you see her?

Everyone around shook their heads, and only Pike, distracted from the computer, nodded to her in agreement. He saw the Red Angel the same way.

"Did Michael tell you that there was an AI in McCoy?" Spock asked.

\- We guessed it together. McCoy was acting weird while on the ship. He opened Jim's letter to the Red Angel. It was classified. And McCoy doesn't understand computer technology. He couldn't get to him. The Doctor had always defended Jim, but now he was clearly attacking. Moreover, this charge only paralyzes, does not kill.

\- Was there a chance that you were wrong? Ed asked.

The Enterprise's captain shrugged.

"Spock, put on your helmet." Pike gestured to a nearby table where the device lay. “I've prepared everything for you. It's time to remember everything.

Spock took his helmet and walked over to the captain.

\- How do you know what to do? Spock asked, slowly donning his helmet. - Is it really Michael who understands the intricacies of the virtual world?

\- Yes, it is Michael telling me what to do. But she knows it only thanks to Jim.

\- How? Jim was surprised.

\- Michael followed you all the time in the virtual world. She saw what you are doing here, Jim. You have discovered many things, some of which seemed insignificant to you. Red Angel, using her smart suit, made the calculations.

“Jim, Pike is telling the truth,” Michael said.

\- Why no one sees you, except for the two of us? - the girl did not give up.

“Convince Spock to start the memory recovery process, and I'll tell you everything. We have little time.

"Spock, Michael wants you to start," Jim relayed.

She went to the computer and checked what program Pike had turned on.

\- You will see fragments of imitation from the life with the girl Clarke, about whom I spoke. I personally reviewed these files myself. It is safe.

"We'll keep an eye on everything here," Ed pulled out a phaser. - If anything, we will return you.

Jim noticed that the phasers had also materialized. Well, at least this time they have weapons here.

Spock gave his phaser and the captain to Jim. Then he connected to the computer through the helmet and froze.

\- Is everything all right with him? Ed asked Jim, watching the Vulcan.

\- I think yes. I've done the same thing here before. And although I did not see myself from the side, this is how the rebels described it. While the consciousness is inside other programs, then the body freezes.

\- What's happening? Maybe someone will explain to me? Uhura reminded herself.

“Ed, tell Uhura, I need to talk to Michael,” Jim said.

Jim Kirk walked to the other end of the van. Her conversation looked one-sided from the outside.

“I need answers,” Jim said. “Why didn't you show up after I was rescued with Neo? Why didn't Pike tell you about you?

\- Jim, you were in the virtual world of the Regulator, and although there could not be AI nanobots in your body, your consciousness could really be changed. I saw the wolves in the forest leading you. They guarded you. AI needs you. But why, I don't know. Connecting our minds has become dangerous for me. This place allows me to manifest, as it is from my world. Unification of consciousnesses is not needed here. But at the same time, only you and Pike can see me. I don't know the reason.

\- Did you test me?

\- Yes. But they defended at the same time. The letters that you sent to me were intercepted by the Regulator when you were in Orville. Our relationship has become dangerous. My interaction with Pike was structured differently. He never sent me messages. AI couldn't know about him.

“With Pike, you were in touch after I injected him with the antidote at the Academy?”

\- Nearly.  
"And you didn't tell me anything," Jim chuckled sadly. “You didn't bet only on me. But she was silent about it, convincing me that I was the only variable. I almost went crazy about it. If I knew about Pike, it would be easier for me. And then I just became a trump card.

“I'm sorry, Jim. But the circumstances were dictated by themselves, - said Michael in the words of Jim.

Ensign Kirk lowered her head. “Both Spock and Ed got the cure for the AI nanobots here. But they don't see you. Why is it only Pike and I who perceive you?

\- You are somehow connected, but I do not understand how.

“I tried to help you through Pike. I didn’t leave you. Pike and I have been thinking about how to take you to the Enterprise. And almost came up with when you were near the planet Neo.

\- Very logical for a semi-volcano! How did you want to pick me up?

\- It doesn't matter now

\- For me it has!

\- The planet Vulcan suffered. Spock was about to go back there. The planet did not arouse feelings in him, but his relatives demanded to repay the debt. And Spock was ready. In this world, Spock only showed feelings when you burned down his house. It was a rash act, but you pierced the armor for feelings, albeit not positive ones. We would take you to the Enterprise. And Spock would have been extremely displeased with that.

"So you decided to expose me to Spock's emotions again so that he stays on the ship?"

“Pike is a good helper, but he hasn’t gotten any feeling from Spock. But you did very well.

"You should have advised him to burn Spock's cabin, you see, and he would have fallen out of favor!"

\- I think not only negative feelings played here. When I was with Pike, I watched my brother. After the fire, he began to change. You managed to get into his consciousness, albeit for microseconds. But that was enough. Part of your image remained in his mind. I watched him call you in a dream. Pike and I tried to convince him to drop the charges so you could be released from prison. But he was adamant. And the more people and Vulcans pressed on him, the more strongly your image manifested itself in his head, feeding negative feelings. Spock confessed to Pike that something was wrong with him. And he said that he could not cope with the dislike for you. Pike recommended to let you go in the physical world, then you let him go in the mental. Spock dropped the charges. But you didn't get out of his head, you transformed. Although he will deny, I am sure that there is much more deep feeling formed there.

Jim couldn't believe it. So many things had to be thought over and realized right away. It came to the fore: her feelings could be mutual. But they didn't have a chance for a relationship. Once they defeat the Regulator and Michael regains the old world, their personalities will be different again.

\- Jim, I watched you in the virtual world. I saw that your consciousness returned to your body, but you couldn't wake up on your own in the cryo chamber. Pike and I have come up with a plan to save you and formally enter this planet. After Orville left the planet, it was forbidden to approach her. I think this order was influenced by the Regulator who got out through the people he captured on the planet. We've been tracking the Orville ship, suspecting it. My signals around the planets were for the AI's attention and for official permission to set foot on Neo.

\- Why did we have to move here all together? - changed the subject Jim.

\- The wolves are close. You need to give Spock time to find out. Guard him. He's our only chance.

\- And why is McCoy here?

\- While his head is in the helmet, his physical body is sleeping. And the Regulator cannot control it. Although Pike shot him, there are still AI nanobots in him. If you left him there, he would wake up and kill you.

\- How to save McCoy? Nanobots also remained in Uhura's body. If we bring her back to consciousness, what will happen?

\- All responses via Spock. The wolves are already here, and now they see the van. AI controls them.

Jim went to the window and looked out. Wolves emerged from the trees, growling aggressively.

Ensign Kirk beckoned Ed, and pointed in the direction of the predators. Pike walked over to them and looked over Jim's shoulder.

\- Can you return my weapon? Pike asked.

Jim handed him the phaser. And Jim gave Spock's weapon to Uhura. Four against a pack of wolves. Now she is not alone, and they have an advantage.

The growl was already heard near the van. The wolves jumped onto the roof. They clawed at the walls, tearing the sheathing.

\- The roof is the weakest point. They'll burst in soon, ”said Jim.

“Then you better get out and shoot them outside. Spock will have a better chance that way, ”Pike suggested.

\- Stop! Spock awoke suddenly.

Jim's hand froze on the door handle, ready to open it.

\- How do you? Jim asked.

“We have to leave,” the Vulcan blurted out quickly.

“There's a program on the computer,” Jim said. - This code will allow you to return consciousness to the body.

\- No! We can't go back. This is all an illusion. That cave, that space where we came from is the deeper part of the imitation. We need to get out of the illusion.

\- What are you talking about? Did you short-circuit there? Ed looked at him dubiously.

\- Could the AI get there? Uhura asked the others.

\- I remembered everything, compared the facts, and realized that our life was unreal. Michael did not change the past. We were not born other people. We were put in an imitation developed from reincarnation research.

\- Is the world that Michael remembers really real? - Jim felt that everything she believed in, what she lived, her personality, absolutely everything flies completely. And if earlier she was ready to face fate, since it was important to save the world. She took it upon herself that she would not be, and instead of her would be Jim Kirk, the brave captain of the Enterprise. But now it turns out it's not real ...

"Yes," Spock replied, and the last hope was cut off in Jim.

At this moment one of the wolves tore off the cover and jumped down. Pike, Ed, Jim, and Uhura simultaneously fired at him and then at the others who were trying to break through from above.

“You have to do something on the brink of death, stay calm and keep your eyes open,” Spock continued to explain over the sound of gunfire.

\- And if you're wrong? - Ed did not give up. - If our consciousness dies here, it will not be in the physical body either.

\- If we exclude what is impossible, all that remains must be true. You only have two choices. Return to the cave, to the world that the Regulator will soon take over, or listen to me, take a chance and see the space beyond the illusion. Coming out of it, the memory will return to you. And all of you will remember the world that Michael told about.

“I don't know who Michael is, but I'm with you, Spock,” Uhura said. - Jim, you came to me in imitation, and made me understand that this is not just a bad dream, but a cage of horrors, and there is a way out of it. I used it and am here now. You wanted to pull my consciousness out and return it to my body. But there are still AI nanobots out there. I would have to fight, and it is not clear who the winner would be. It's the same with McCoy.

\- Your cage in the illusion was not logical, you should have removed your emotions, and you saw it. But our world is structured and logical. We were born and raised in it. How can you throw everything away? - Jim clung to the elusive faith.

\- What does Michael say? Ed asked.

“She doesn't know,” Jim said, looking at her.

“We won't be able to keep the wolves for long. There are more and more, ”Ed said. - We need to decide which direction we are going from here.

“I'll get out of here with Spock. If this is true, Michael will be able to follow me and see the world beyond. She will come back and tell through Jim, - Pike conveyed the idea of the Red Angel.

There are ten times more wolves outside. They attacked the van from all sides, shaking it.

Spock retrieved his phaser and shot himself in the stomach.

\- Death should not be instant, otherwise the illusion will restart. You will simply be made to believe that I am dead.

Pike followed suit. And after a few seconds, both men disappeared.

“Holding positions,” Ed commanded.

***

Michael never showed up. They were able to hold out for ten minutes when the wolves finally tore apart a large layer of the roof sheathing and burst into the van where the computers were located, pushing people to the other side. They attacked over and over again, stopped by their weapons. Phasers stopped inflicting mortal harm on them. There were more and more wolves, both in the van and outside.

“We don't have time anymore. We are cut off from computers. We can't get into the cave, ”Jim blurted out.

“Then I hope to see you in the next life,” Ed said, continuing to shoot like the others.

“You can't surrender to the Regulator, we will be placed in a cage and deprived of our memory,” Uhura agreed.

Jim shot McCoy in the stomach and then herself. Ed and Uhura did the same.

“Yes, I'll see you in the next life,” the three of them repeated.

People said goodbye to each other. A sudden flash lit up everything around, blinding the wounded, and in the next instant, Jim realized that she was disappearing.

***

Jim Kirk opened his eyes but closed them immediately. The head was very dizzy, and also crackled from the light.

“Jim,” Pike called to him.

“Hush,” Jim whispered.

“You’re not alone here, quieter,” McCoy grumbled somewhere nearby.

\- We are not dead or dead? Uhura asked. - Or again in imitation?

“We got out of the imitation, where we saw illusions, but we are still in the virtual world,” Spock said. - We could not get back to you and tell you that the version with imitation was confirmed. The system did not let us in anymore. I was able to short-circuit it as soon as you got out. We have time until it reboots, and our disappearance is detected.

“I remembered another life,” Ed said. “I am indeed the captain of the Orville spaceship. But I'm from another time. I remembered you Captain Pike, you Ambassador Spock, and you Captain Jim Kirk from the Federation textbooks.

“The traffic controller has spread over different time zones,” Michael said. “He can reach people everywhere in the future.

Now everyone could see her.

Jim opened his eyes again, looking around with difficulty. They were in a field near an iron fence with a closed gate. Michael and Spock stood next to the panel that was cheerful on the gate. The headache intensified so much that he could no longer stand it, and closed his eyes, clutching his head.

"Jim, breathe," Spock advised. - It should pass soon.

Jim, McCoy, Uhura and Ed were still on the ground, unable to stand up.

“I was with the team on a reconnaissance mission on an M-class planet,” Ed continued. “I examined the cave entrance. I remember nothing further.

\- It really was an illusion. How long did we stay in it? Uhura asked.

“I'm trying to figure it out right now,” Michael said.

\- Have you found out there are still people in the imitation? Pike asked Spock and Michael.

\- System programs only. We were the only humans, ”Spock reported.

\- Do you remember how you ended up in imitation? Ed asked the others.

“We were on the Enterprise when we were caught off guard by the Regulator's fleet. The ship was attacked and we were captured. I was wearing a Red Angel for Time Travel. And I thought that I was able to move into the past, and change something there. But I, just like you, ended up in imitation. AI caught us all. I am currently studying the information from the illusion panel to figure it out.

“I was on the bridge next to Jim,” Pike recalled. - During the attack, Spock ran in with a bottle, shouting that we need to drink this. He and Michael were preparing a remedy for the AI nanobots. I took a few sips and passed it to Jim. He drank most of it. Apparently that's why Michael was able to contact him first.

Jim couldn't keep his eyes open. My head was maddening. Memories began to fill my brain. Here he is, the captain of the Enterprise in distress on his ship. Pike gives him a bottle of liquid. He takes a sip and wants to pass it on to others, but he sees that the people around him start to glow: they are being transported somewhere. Jim gulps down the liquid, hoping he can help others no matter where they end up. On this Jim Kirk the man disappears and the female version of Jim Kirk appears in imitation. How much time did they spend there? Is it all your life? He was a woman. He had a husband, that is, she. And feelings for Spock. My head started spinning even more. Memories from the imitation did not seem to him, as if he was participating only as an observer.

“Jim,” Dr. McCoy called, “how many fingers am I showing?

“Your fingers don't bother me now. I can't even open my eyes. And I remembered that I was a woman!

Everyone got better except for Kirk. Ed and Uhura got to their feet, and Jim could not lift his head off the ground.

“But you should now understand women better,” suggested Uhura supportively.

\- The traffic controller came up with a different gender for me, made me a completely different person. And I don't even know if it was me or not.

"You are a serious enemy, the AI knew about this, and tried to confuse the brain more than anyone else," Spock concluded.

\- Jim overcame all difficulties, - supported his female version of Pike. - She developed, became strong, and led. She knew that the world, if they won, would change and her personality would disappear. She resigned herself to it. Her ego was suppressed. For her, only the salvation of the world was important. Complete dedication.

“She was very worried about her actions, which led to ambiguous consequences,” McCoy said. - She was more sensitive, but at the same time more restrained.

“I taught her Vulcan techniques on how to develop mental power, awareness,” Michael said, still studying the computer panel. “You never had time to get this knowledge before from Spock. But Jim had time. And she knows how to do the Vulcan neck grip you have wanted to learn for so long".

-You talk about her as if you regret that it is not she, but me.

“Charming,” Spock said, reacting to the captain’s words, “you and she are one and the same. Listen to yourself. I'm sure you can still feel it inside. Your denial may not make you feel better.

"I confess, Captain Kirk, I didn't expect you to be my rival to Spock," Uhura said half-joking. - I could only assume that you would compete with him for me.

“You have compromised Jim,” Spock continued. “I think you'd better deal with the split consciousness. I'm taking command. I know what to do.

“We're not on the ship. The enterprise is destroyed. I'm not the captain.

“You are still our captain, but you are temporarily removed from command by a doctor,” McCoy said. - There was an AI in me. My mind also suffered, and it left a mark. You still have strength and new experience, you just need to come to terms with the part of yourself that you suppress with denial.

“This simulation was calculated to identify the tasks of reincarnation and the change of universes,” said Michael, finishing reviewing the data. - The controller set the required parameters, erased the memory and introduced a new vector with different characteristics of people. Jim got the most at different levels. Spock was rendered unconscious. I am not on the lists of this imitation. I think I got there by accident. The suit shows that I was sucked into the funnel as I tried to move. The traffic controller did not know about me until a certain time. And then I realized that I was also stuck inside an illusion, but I don't understand this, and began to hunt for me. He couldn't catch me there because of the suit.

\- Why all this imitation? Jim asked, holding his head in the same way. “The AI wanted to kill me and Pike.

\- Several versions are programmed here. The main task is to extract the knowledge that was in the Sphere from you, which the AI was hunting in the real world. Data that you were able to study until you sent the Discovery ship along with it to another temporary space away from the Regulator.

“I haven’t seen this data,” Jim denied. “That was before McCoy and me. Why are we here?

“You're here for Spock and Pike. AI will think over moves in advance, manipulate us and influence each other.

\- In the original version, Jim was not supposed to die, but the AI noticed me and lured me to save you and Pike. I was able to save you by bypassing his protocol of setting a trap for me. He did not know that I could reach you not directly, but through consciousness, since you both drank my anti-nanobot remedy before our capture on the ship. Luck was on our side.

\- Could you get in touch in some other way? Spock asked.

\- I couldn't do it because of the suit. I've been. But the AI didn't know about it.

“You said that Spock had to fight the Traffic Controller and that the AI had consistently won before. How then did you know that, since you yourself were stuck in imitation, not knowing about it? Pike asked.

\- I saw what the AI showed, leaving a program trail that I perceived as the future. AI showed me the last battle between him and Spock. Perhaps he knew that I had the most knowledge about the Sphere, and if he catches me through Spock, it will be the best option for him.

"So I was just an AI bait for you?" Spock raised an eyebrow.

“But he became our savior. AI also miscalculated in this. How do you understand that we are in imitation? Michael asked.

\- I saw shots from imitations when I was in them a few years ago. In the beginning, I also did not understand that the world around is unreal. For a long time I walked along a tangled path. But when all the details fell into place, I understood. I have memorized the signs that show the difference between the real world and imitation. As hard as it was to admit, our world was an imitation.

\- And what are these signs? Pike asked.

\- Emotions. The Vulcans have suppressed them since childhood, but continue to experience them. When we feel, we feel a faint trace of them, and we see the color. He is always gray. Only in the most emotionally strong situations did they become colored for me. In imitation, they were always colored then. And now, I was deprived of feelings according to the idea of AI, and did not see any color, and did not experience them. Jim got through to me. And all the emotions I gained were colored. Never turned gray even when I was in a balanced state. I have compared these facts.

\- So you were not completely sure? And we followed you because of the color of your emotions? - Ed was surprised.

“We didn't follow him, we hoped for a miracle, saying goodbye to life,” Uhura said.

“Michael wanted me to have feelings for what she saw that I couldn't handle the AI. She needed to open them in me, as the AI intended. Thus, the AI thought that it would be easier to manipulate us. But he was wrong. He could not calculate that it was the color of my feelings that was my anchor and reference point in his world. It seems the randomness principle worked in our favor.

“In Vulcan English, we're lucky,” Michael said.  
“Spock, if you ever become unconscious, I will set fire to your cabin to bring you back,” Jim said, remembering all the events in the imitation.

\- You are the captain, you cannot do this.

“This is a joke, Spock.

\- Captain, let me help you. You don't look good.

\- The head does not work. The way out of the imitation worked for me more.

Spock sat down next to him and placed his fingers on the psycho-point on Jim's face.

***

Within the united consciousness, everything was white around.

“Spock,” the man Jim said.

“Spock,” the female version of Jim said.

Jim the man and Ensign Kirk the girl stood at opposite ends of the room.

\- Now there are three of us. Will my head surely explode? Jim looked at his female version.

“Captain, your brain is trying to parse data directly from you and your female version. Only by connecting into one, you can function normally.

“As I said, the world has changed and my personality has disappeared. I was ready for this. And glad to meet Captain Jim Kirk. ”The girl looked at him. - I wanted to be like you in order to save the world. See, Spock, we didn't have a chance to live. ”She turned to the Vulcan. “But maybe it's for the best. You have found your true self. And I was not real.

"Jim, you were very dear to me," Spock admitted. - I wish I could say it there. Although it was an imitation, it is still life, it is still an experience of the soul. You broke into my consciousness and activated my senses. Thanks to this, I remembered, and discovered that the world is not real. You are our savior. You are very important. If it weren't for you, we would have wandered about imitation in AI games. I will remember you Ensign Kirk, the arsonist of my home and my heart.

"Spock, is it okay that you now confess your feelings for me?" Captain Kirk asked.

\- Not to you, the captain, but to your female part, to your past life. Perhaps this connection appeared because I felt your soul subconsciously and allowed myself to open. But feelings in me arose precisely for the female version when communicating with her. She is unique in her manifestation. Jim must understand that she is real and valuable. Only in this way, she can normally merge with your revived consciousness and convey all the experience gained in imitation. She learned a lot, knows a lot and knows how.

\- I hope you do not want to awaken her in a fit of feelings? The captain raised an eyebrow.

“This is a spiritual connection, not a physical one. I can assure you that I do not intend to do this.

\- It became easier, - he joked nervously.

Jim still decided to look the girl in the eye.

“I don’t know how to react,” he admitted.

"This imitation is prepared for the reincarnation program," Spock began to explain. - We were all erased memory and gradually loaded another. We have actually lived there all these years since birth for our perception, although the simulation computer shows that we have only been there for a month.

\- I had a month to live, - said the girl.

\- The program involves a scheme of how a person will act if he erase his memory and give another one. Impose insecurity, phobias, and more. Will there be information from the subconscious about other qualities of the previous personality? So much the consciousness will agree with the new reality, and will follow the circumstances without contradicting them. Captain, if in reality you were born in a different life as a girl, and grew up in these conditions that were in imitations, you would act the same way as Ensign Kirk. Until the age of twenty-one, we are dependent on parents and society. After that, the brain begins to work actively, and already resists the surrounding circumstances. Michael changed Jim's lifestyle in imitation. Before that, everything went smoothly and harmlessly, there was no point in changing, and pulling traits and qualities from the past incarnation from the subconscious. But everything changed, and Ensign Kirk had to force herself to do many things that were at first foreign to her. But her every step on this path, raised unconscious memories, and with it the strength of the spirit. She did not know, but she possessed many of your qualities, and acquired new ones. For you, it is like new good updates for your computer.

\- Is this a compliment or not? - clarified the girl, trying to joke and hold on. “And yet I'm not real, I understand".

\- You are real. You're part of Jim Kirk. Just as he was your inner part in the imitation, and you took the lead role. Souls incarnate many times. We had many different personalities, but we are all one inside. Since the process of reincarnation takes place in a different way, these individuals do not contradict each other, since they are recognized by one entity. Here they are split, and therefore you cannot function normally. The soul throws off subtle bodies when physical life is over, but the consciousness of the personality remains in it. It was like an actor played a role on stage and left it. The soul remembers and realizes itself as an entity before the passed life, as an actor, but also remembers the role played, the acquired personality: emotions and experience. This process of leaving the role occurs gradually. At the moment, two persons still live in one consciousness in the physical world. The essence of the soul cannot unite them, since life on the earthly plane continues. You have a split personality. Ensign Kirk only exists here in your mind now. Now we need to properly unite you. But for that, you both have to accept each other.

“I'm glad to meet you too, Ensign Jim Kirk,” the captain said earnestly, realizing Spock's words.

\- You should be grateful to each other. You have each brought most of the experience to your shared soul. Both of you are part of the same soul. You can't snatch someone out. It will be like ripping off a finger or other part of the body from a person. And when physical life is over, the soul will remember its role in both of you. Shake hands with each other.

The captain and ensign followed the Vulcan's orders.

The hands began to shine and the light spread to them. Only Jim the man remained in the white space.

***

Spock finished his mind fusion process and moved away from the captain.

\- Jim, how do you feel? Spock asked.

\- It's better. Thanks.

\- Have you seen Jim? Michael asked.

\- She was there.

“We'd like to say goodbye to her too,” Ed said. Everyone else nodded in agreement with him.

\- All is well. I'm glad everyone liked my female version. I confess, though surprised, but I also liked it. She melted into my subconscious, like other personalities that I was in past lives. But now I feel whole.

“You're on time,” Michael said. - One of the search programs is approaching here. Apparently, they decided to check the failure in the simulation.

"I know where we can hide and go to the Protestants," Spock said.

***

Spock remembered everything from his previous stay in the virtual world. Using special codes, he got in touch with the Protestants.

The Vulcan found out that the Regulator, just like then, is trying to create a superbrain from the captured outstanding consciousnesses. All his antennas were aimed at searching for a kink in time. The host consisted of a combined AI electrical circuit and a shared superbrain. They were both the host and the broadcaster simultaneously for different tasks.

Spock had an idea in the past, but he did not have time to implement it then: the antennas received and transmitted wave radiation into the space of space in a certain range, he thought of overloading the system, making them only receivers, supplementing them with amplifiers.

With the help of the Protestants, the group reached the remote control modules of the computers of the virtual world. Spock recoded the device and closed the network using the system authorization code he had obtained the last time he was here. Now all information from the digital world went straight to the AI antenna with a superbrain without preliminary processing.

The task was completed. The system could not withstand the load. AI was temporarily neutralized. During this time, Spock and Michael were able to find in the system: what happened to their physical bodies.

The traffic controller abducted them from the Enterprise using a transporter. His transporter dematerialized them, unloading their consciousness on the artificial intelligence platform, and physical bodies at the molecular level remained in the system's transporter buffer on one of the Regulator's planets.

Spock was able to program the transporter and reboot the process from the buffer, and direct their materialization elsewhere. Their physical bodies, even decomposed into molecules, were associated with consciousness.

The Vulcan communicated with the Earth through AI systems. He and his team voiced their ranks and ID numbers, and received transport clearance.

Ed's transport was launched into his temporary space on Earth. They did not understand how the captain from the future got into imitation with them. Ed didn't tell them his guess. On his last mission on an M-class planet, he thought of the great Enterprise team from history, and dreamed of meeting them. Could it have coincided that his fanaticism and the lair of the enemy in which he fell, led him to a dream. He met heroes from the past.  
So the escape from the virtual world was accomplished. Jim Kirk, Spock, Michael, Pike, McCoy, Uhura moved to Earth in 2268, and Ed in the twenty-fifth century.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prehistory of the virtual world and Spock's life in it  
> https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/24577891/chapters/59359786


End file.
